Crowns and Bridges: The Secret to Fixing Damaged and Missing Teeth
Your teeth are incredible. They can withstand amazing amounts of pressure for years and years and still work normally — in a perfect world, that is. In the real world, your teeth can get damaged by years of neglect, accidents, injuries or just bad luck. They can even get knocked out. Instead of dealing with pain and discomfort whenever you try to eat, our dental crowns and dental bridges can help fix your problems and get you back to having a healthy set of teeth. Call us today at 828-264-9938 to schedule your consultation with our dentist and learn more about dental crowns and dental bridges in Boone, North Carolina.
How Can CEREC Crowns Protect My Damaged Teeth?
When a tooth has major damage, such as a cavity that has been ignored for too long or a fracture caused by a traumatic injury, you have to worry about two things: how to keep the tooth from breaking open or eroding, and how to seal up the damage so you can chew like normal without pain. Dental crowns can fix both problems. These are caps made to look like a healthy version of your damaged tooth. They fit tightly over that tooth, protecting the damaged area and giving the tooth much more strength and durability.
At Appalachian Dental Care, we use a special technology called CEREC to make your dental crowns the same day you come in. And because we have three-dimensional imaging technology, we can create a dental crown that fits perfectly and looks great.
What Are Inlays and Onlays?
What if your tooth is not that badly damaged? Maybe it just has a small damaged part, such as a moderate cavity. In these cases, using a dental crown could be overkill. Instead, we offer inlays and onlays at our dental office. These are made from porcelain or zirconia (two very durable but natural-looking materials), and they seal up damaged areas to keep the tooth strong. Inlays rest between or “inside” the cusps of your teeth, and onlays can rest on the top and over the side.
What Does a Dental Bridge Do in My Mouth?
If you are missing teeth, your smile will not look good. When people see that gap in your smile, they start to wonder what painful thing happened to cause it. Worse, lacking even one tooth can make it harder to eat normally as well as make it easier for gum disease to take root in your gums. To fix this, Dr. Steven Airey can place a dental bridge in the gap. All dental bridges use replacement teeth carefully made to fit in your smile.
There are two types of dental bridges we can offer:
- A traditional fixed dental bridge replaces a single missing tooth. It is held in place by a pair of dental crowns attached to the teeth on either side of the gap. Unlike dental implants, there is no surgery needed to place them.
- An implant-supported dental bridge can replace more than one tooth. The implant is surgically placed under the bridge to add additional support and stability.
Trying to live with damaged or missing teeth is not just hard, it is painful. But with dental crowns and dental bridges, you do not have to live like this anymore. To learn more about our dental crowns and dental bridges, or to schedule your next appointment, give us a call today or use our online form.
