What Different Dental Procedures Are Meant To Do

Working with a dentist to take care of your smile is an important task. You may have some questions, though, about the different procedures that such practitioners use. Here's what you need to know about some of the bigger procedures to repair teeth or replace them.

Dental Crowns

A dental crown treatment plan is created for a patient who has a tooth that has a healthy interior but exterior damage. Dental crowns are frequently chosen for folks who've suffered major cracks or chips to the enamel of their teeth. The idea is to remove a large portion of the enamel and replace it with a cap.

Dental crowns are made from a variety of materials, with resin, porcelain, and ceramic ones being the most popular. Some stainless steel models are used, typically as temporary replacements until better materials can be delivered.

Dental Bridges

Practitioners install dental bridges when they need to fill in a gap in a person's smile, usually due to a tooth being extracted. The idea here is to place caps over two healthy teeth at either end of the gap, and then a bridge of false teeth fills in the gap. The materials used for bridges are similar to the ones used to make crowns.

Hybrid bridge-implants are sometimes used as part of a dental bridge treatment plan. This is mostly the case when there isn't a molar in the back of the mouth to act as a second anchor for an arch of replacement teeth. These are sometimes referred to in the industry as dental implant bridges.

Dental Implants

This is the most radical of the three procedures listed here. A dental implant treatment plan usually calls for installing a titanium post that goes down into the bones that support the teeth. This item is perforated, allowing the bone to grow into and around it, hopefully providing a strong anchor point.

Once the post has healed and is showing signs of taking, a cap will be placed on top of the post. A prosthetic that's similar to a dental crown will then be placed over the cap to provide an artificial tooth.

Dental implants can be used in large arches to replace numerous missing teeth. In fact, using an all-on-four process, two arches can be mounted to a total of four posts to replace all of your upper or lower teeth after they have been removed.

Speak with your dentist to learn more about any procedure they may suggest for you.