Crowns aren’t just sparkly jewel hats that royalty wears or what your favourite sports team has accomplished in their past season. The bridge I would like to discuss does not connect the twin Saults. All kidding aside when your dentist suggests a crown or bridge they are talking about a indirectly fabricated restoration (made outside of the mouth) that will help protect a badly broken down tooth or help restore edentulous (missing) teeth. Below: An example of a crown (1 tooth being covered) versus a bridge (multiple teeth being covered or replaced).
Image of a Single Unit Crown (Zirconium) vs. 4 Unit Bridge (PFM).
Below: A crown preparation showing tooth structure being removed around a tooth this will allow the crown to provide extra-coronal coverage (i.e. a hard hat for the tooth).
A single unit crown prep, the red dye is used as spacer for cement.
Below: A bridge prep showing how two abutments (prepared teeth) that are supporting two pontics (false teeth). The final result is two teeth giving the appearance and function of four teeth.
See how the 2 outside teeth will support 2 false teeth in-between.
In some cases, teeth are so badly broken down we don’t necessarily want to remove all of the outside walls. Instead preparing around the tooth we might make a lab fabricated onlay or inlay. This way we preserve as much natural tooth structure as possible. Below: showing an onlay prep on a root canal treated tooth and the final onlay restoration in composite resin (regular white filling material).
Onlay prep, note there is only 1 natural tooth wall remaining on the outside surface.
Final onlay restoration in a composite resin. Having it made outside of the mouth allows for easier placement and better contacts creating a superior result for the patient.
Implants are titanium screws placed into the bone that are restored with crown and bridges as well as other prosthesis (i.e. partials and dentures). In the future I will update a post specifically on implant dentistry. As for now I hope you enjoyed learning about indirect crown and bridge. If you have any questions feel free to contact us!
Everyone enjoy their weekend!! Go hounds go!
Anthony