When considering dental implants, our St. Petersburg, FL patients usually ask about how they differ from getting a traditional dental bridge. While every situation is different, the basic differences apply to most situations. Our dentist office staff helps St. Petersburg patients by talking about the differences and what options would apply to their specific case.
Most of the time, it’s a single troubled tooth that is the cause of concern. The tooth is usually located between two other more healthy teeth.
An Implant is less invasive to nearby teeth
A dental implant is designed to have a titanium post inserted into the jaw bone. Because of the nature of titanium, this post fuses to the jawbone over time and becomes a solid, and stand alone, anchor on which to attach the crown. Conversely, a bridge needs the help of the two neighboring teeth on either side of the degraded one. A bridge needs a health tooth with a crown in it on either side of the problem tooth. To secure the crown, the two neighboring teeth are ground down and treated to accept the crowns. Then, the crowns are used to secure the bridge piece that holds the artificial tooth.
An implant is more secure
Since the titanium post winds up being fused to the jawbone, the post is relatively more secure than a bridge. Since bridges generally need two other teeth to anchor to, if either one of those anchor teeth has a problem, the whole bridge is threatened.
Implants allow you to clean your teeth more effectively
A dental bridge can make it hard to continue to clean between the teeth because of the hardware connecting them. This increased the likelihood of plaque buildup between the teeth and threatens the two healthy anchor teeth. An implant will allow you to floss down between the teeth as usual.
Bridges usually are less effort to have installed
Bridges require the crowns on the neighboring teeth, and a customized bridge piece of hardware to be created. But, all this can be accomplished in a matter of a couple visits and a couple weeks. While there are different ways to install implants, generally, an implant must be given time to fuse to the jawbone before loading it with hardware. This creates a timeline that includes months for the implant to fuse. Meanwhile, a patient needs to have a temporary solution created and installed to help fill the gap in their teeth and to protect the post as it fuses.
Our friendly dedicated staff greets you by name and with a warm smile. Dr. Maher Rashid, Dr. Murad Rashid, and our entire team of experienced dental professionals are committed to treating you with respect, personal attention and a higher level of care that comes from decades of combined dental experience. At Dolphin Dental Group, we take the time to listen because there is simply no better way to ensure you get the gentle care and beautiful smile you deserve. We take care to make our dentistry practice the best it can be. We serve the Seminole, St. Petersburg, and Largo, Florida areas.
We would like to be your St. Petersburg dentist office. Please Contact Us to let us show you how much we care about our patients.
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