Bridges

[00:00:04.21] - Dr. Allan Thomas It used to be that people thought a dental bridge was where false teeth were put onto either a metal or a plastic framework, and then it would go in and out. People would use to call that a bridge. Dentistry has gotten away from that. If you refer to a dental bridge nowadays, it's something that is cemented in, it's fixed, it never comes out. [00:00:27.03] What it does is it replaces a missing tooth. The two teeth on either side of the space are used as anchors, and those teeth are prepared to accept what would be the same shape as like a crown. Then a three-unit fixed bridge is made, which it looks like three teeth, and it functions like three teeth. They're very comfortable, and they never come out. They're super strong. [00:00:55.06] Dental bridges are the biggest benefit for those people who are they are missing teeth, or they're going to miss teeth or teeth never grew in for one reason or another. After placement of a dental bridge, the way to care for this is just like all of… Just treating it like your other teeth, meaning brushing and flossing it and using a mouth rinse, if bacteria and bacteria are a concern for most of us. [00:01:23.01] One difference being that under a dental bridge, you need to clean it by threading floss either on the bottom, it would be flossing underneath it or on the top, it would be flossing above in order to get that floss and the bacteria out from underneath the bridge.