Lakeside Dental provides comprehensive restorative treatments — including porcelain crowns and bridges — so that you can take advantage of quality oral health care in one convenient location.
Together with white fillings, dental implants, and root canal therapy, our crowns and bridges make it possible to restore even the most complex of bite needs for our patients.
Crowns (also known as “caps”) are a full-coverage restoration that cover and protect the fragile tooth underneath. They’re used when a filling is no longer adequate to structurally withstand everyday wear.
Our dentists may recommend a crown if you have a tooth that has:
Although it may feel like nothing is wrong with your tooth, it’s best to treat it before something worse happens — such as the tooth splitting in half. Otherwise, there will not be enough healthy structure left to repair, and the entire tooth will likely need to be extracted.
A bridge spans from one tooth (or implant) to another, with an artificial tooth suspended between them. This longer type of restoration is ideal for replacing one or two teeth at a time, or three or four if implants are being used to support it. It essentially looks like three or four crowns fused side by side.
Because bridges are permanently affixed into place, they eliminate the need to wear a removable partial denture.
It’s important that you take extra care of your new restoration in order to extend its life. Although they are covering or replacing a tooth, crowns and bridges still require attentive hygiene. Otherwise, the teeth/tooth that it is anchored over can become re-infected with new areas of tooth decay.
Brush along the gumlines carefully and floss at least once a day. For bridges, use a floss threader to clean underneath the fixed prosthesis and against the supporting tooth or implant. Even one of the supporting teeth becoming infected with gum disease can jeopardize the stability of the entire restoration.
Having dental work done used to mean having gooey, messy impressions that tickled the back of your throat. Not anymore! We use state-of-the-art 3D scanning technology to capture a “virtual” impression of your tooth.
These digital images of your tooth allow us to work closely with our lab to create the best fitting crown or bridge for your smile needs. There are no re-impressions or risks of error during the manufacturing or transportation process.
If you’re replacing your missing teeth with our dental implants, then you’ll be thrilled to know that we can provide comprehensive placement and restoration here in our office. Our porcelain bridges and crowns can be customized to fit over your implants to replace as many (or few) teeth as necessary.
Investing in dental bridges and crowns is a great way to compliment the appearance of your smile, even if you’ve had a past history of dental problems. Contact our Moses Lake Dental Practice today to schedule an exam to learn more!