Dental Crowns & Bridges
Keeping your natural teeth is typically the best way to maintain the health and beauty of your smile, but sometimes damage (chips or fractures) or severe decay presents significant challenges to saving teeth. Dental crowns and bridges allow many people to keep their natural teeth and restore or enhance the appearance of their smile at the same time, and Fife Dental Care provides these general dentistry services at our Rio Rancho, NM office.
The Difference between Dental Crowns and Bridges
Dental crowns are caps made to fit over natural teeth whereas bridges are one or more false teeth (pontics) designed to fill in space and are anchored to surrounding natural teeth.
A dental crown is made in the shape of a natural tooth and provides protection to the natural tooth it covers. Before dental crowns can be placed, the natural tooth must be prepared, which may include treating bacterial infections and reducing the size of the tooth.
Permanent dental bridges (vs. removable partial dentures) typically anchor the pontic(s) by capping surrounding teeth with dental crowns.
Benefits of Dental Crowns and Bridges
Dental crowns allow patients to keep their natural teeth, and dental bridges help ensure that teeth stay in their proper alignment. By maintaining proper dentition, these restorative dentistry treatments allow you to maintain overall health, too.
Dental crowns and bridges allow you to:
- Chew properly, which stimulates underlying bone tissue, and that, in turn, prevents bone density loss that can lead to tooth loss.
- Comfortably chew hard foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, so that you can maintain a healthy balanced diet.
- Maintain proper alignment and bite (occlusion), reducing the likelihood of developing TMD (temporomandibular joint disorder).
Maintaining a healthy smile also helps you maintain an attractive smile. Dental crowns and bridges can even enhance the appearance of your smile because you can select the shade of porcelain to match your natural teeth. (To maintain uniform color, the shade of your dental crowns and/or bridges should be selected after professional tooth whitening.)
Restore Your Smile
Fife Dental Carecan help those seeking to improve their dental health and those who want to enhance the appearance of their smile. Through quality general and cosmetic dentistry services in Rio Rancho, Dr. Fife can help you achieve your ideal smile. Contact us to schedule a consultation to find out if dental crowns and/or bridges are right for you.
Fife Dental Care Serving Patients in Rio Rancho and the Greater Albuquerque Area Taking Care of You and Your Dental Needs