Bridges

Bridges are often used when a person is not missing enough teeth to need a full or partial denture

What are bridges?

Bridges are false teeth anchored onto neighbouring teeth in order to span gaps left by one or more missing teeth. The replacement teeth are known as pontics or ‘false’ teeth and are fixed to natural teeth or implants either side of the gap, known as abutments.

What are the benefits of bridges?

  • They can restore your smile
  • They can restore function so you can chew properly
  • They can prevent other remaining teeth from drifting out of position
Wingham Dental Practice - bridges
Wingham Dental Practice - bridges

Are there different types of bridges?

Conventional fixed bridges are the most common and involve fusing a pontic or false tooth to crowns cemented to natural teeth or implants either side of the gap.

They can be made of porcelain, usually bonded to metal, or entirely of metal, usually gold. The adjacent natural teeth are prepared like a crown preparation and a temporary bridge is usually fitted while the laboratory constructs the new bridge.

Adhesive bridges use metal wings to glue the false tooth onto the surface enamel of an adjacent abutment. These bridges are commonly used to replace missing upper lateral incisors, for example after orthodontics, where the wing is glued to the back of the adjacent canine tooth.

These bridges are usually cheaper and preserve more tooth structure, as they require little or no preparation, but the abutment tooth needs to be strong and healthy and should not have any large fillings.

Our opening hours

We are open Monday - Friday and closed for lunch between 1 – 2pm

On Fridays, surgery is only available in the morning.

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