Crowns and Bridges in Tecumseh, MI

Restore Your Smile with Crowns and Bridges

While fillings can be effective for minor cavities to your teeth, crowns and bridges are utilized when your teeth experience more severe damage. Broken, fractured or even lost teeth are candidates for crowns or bridges to help restore your smile and let you go on with your daily life.

Dental crowns are caps placed on your teeth made of synthetic material like porcelain.
 
Crowns restore your tooth's function and appearance, and are often used after dental restoration like root canal therapy.  When tooth decay advances so far that large portions of the tooth must be removed, a crown will restore the tooth’s stability and function.
 
Crowns are also used to attach bridges, cover implants, prevent a cracked tooth from becoming worse, or an existing filling is in jeopardy of becoming loose or dislocated. Crowns also serve an aesthetic use and are applied when a discolored or stained tooth needs to be restored to its natural appearance.

Bridges

Bridges are natural-looking dental appliances that can replace a section of missing teeth. Because they are custom-made, bridges are barely noticeable and can restore the natural contour of teeth as well as the proper bite relationship between upper and lower teeth.

Bridges are sometimes referred to as fixed partial dentures, because they are semi-permanent and are bonded to existing teeth or implants. There are several types of fixed dental bridges (cannot be removed), including conventional fixed bridges, cantilever bridges and resin-bonded bridges. Unlike a removable bridge, which you can take out and clean, your dentist can only remove a fixed bridge.

Porcelain, gold alloys or combinations of materials are usually used to make bridge appliances.

Appliances called implant bridges are attached to an area below the gum tissue, or the bone.

Crowns

Before a crown can be placed, your tooth must be prepared, often by reducing the size. An impression is then made from the existing tooth to create a custom-designed crown. This impression is sent to a special lab where they manufacture your unique crown. In some cases, a temporary crown is applied until the permanent crown is ready.

When your permanent crown is ready, it will be cemented into place.
 
Crowns are sometimes confused with veneers, but they are quite different. Veneers are typically applied only to relatively small areas.

The procedure for dental bridges typically takes around two visits. During the first visit, the teeth surrounding the missing tooth, known as the abutment teeth, are prepared. Impressions will be taken which are used in a dental lab to create a temporary bridge. This protects your teeth and gums during the process for creating your metal or porcelain bridge.

After the permanent bridge is complete, you’ll have another visit to replace the temporary bridge and place the full bridge. It will be checked for fitting and comfort to make sure your bite is consistent with before the bridge was placed.

If the bridge is meant to be fixed to your teeth, it will be cemented in place after we confirm the bridge fits properly.