Crowns, Bridges, and Implants: Understanding the Differences

Crowns and Bridges for Teeth in Sun City AZ area

When your smile is at risk from decay, dental trauma, or gum disease, you need to know your options for restoring its health and beauty. One of the first steps to consider is speaking with Dr. Jae Cho from Wildflower Dental about restorative dentistry. Your Sun City, Arizona dentist offers numerous restorative treatments to repair, restore, or replace natural teeth to get your smile back in form. These treatments include dental implants, crowns, and bridges. By learning how these treatments work, you can make wise decisions to improve the quality of your smile.

The Difference Between Crowns, Dental Implants and Bridges

Crowns, implants, and bridges are all great options for correcting problems with decayed, damaged, or lost teeth. There are differences, however, in how these restorations are used to restore the integrity of your smile. The following explanation helps clarify the differences between the three:

Dental Crowns

Crowns are hollow, tooth-shaped caps that cover existing teeth compromised by decay or damage. They can be made from ceramic, metal, composite resin, porcelain material, or a mixture of these. To receive a crown, your compromised tooth must be filed down or reshaped to create space for your crown to fit comfortably. Then, impressions of your teeth are taken and sent to a lab where custom crowns are made. Meanwhile, we can place a temporary crown over your tooth. Once your custom crown is ready, we will replace the temporary crown with the permanent one and cement it in place. A porcelain crown will restore your tooth’s original function and beauty to make your tooth whole and useful again.

Dental Bridge

Dental bridges are artificial teeth that replace natural teeth that have gone missing due to decay, injury, or gum disease. Dr. Cho can fill a gap left by one to four missing teeth with a natural-looking bridge. Traditional bridges are anchored by dental crowns fitted onto healthy teeth at either end of the tooth gap. If you only have one healthy tooth at the end of the gap, a Cantilever bridge can restore your smile as it only requires one crown for support. Bridges are generally fixed restorations, which means they’re not removed for soaking or cleaning. They look and function like natural teeth for smiling, biting, and chewing.

Dental Implants

Implants are also used to replace lost teeth. However, they function independently, so they don’t need existing teeth for support. Implant teeth are anchored in place by implants, which are titanium screws placed inside your jawbone surgically to take the place of lost tooth roots. Dr. Cho will wait for the implants to permanently fuse with your bone system before attaching your new tooth. Once we’ve attached your new teeth to the implants, the beauty and function of your smile will be fully restored.

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New Patients: (623) 400-2117 | Existing Patients: (623) 815-0512
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