Soma Integrated Health Care and Dental Specialities
Prosthodontia is the science of and art of providing suitable substitutes for missing or damaged portions of teeth, or for one or more lost or missing teeth and their associated parts, so that impaired function, appearance, comfort, and health of the patient may be restored.
Crown and Bridge
A crown (or cap) is a custom made covering placed over a tooth to strengthen, restore, seal and improve the appearance of the tooth. Crowns are especially beneficial for teeth which have large cavities, root canal treated, brittle or fractured.
Crowns are fabricated from a number of materials: metal (gold alloy, palladium, base alloys such as nickel or chromium), porcelain fused to metal, all ceramic or porcelain, all resin, and acrylic
A bridge is a custom device which replaces missing teeth and anchors to neighboring teeth for support. Are also known as fixed partial dentures. They bridge the gap created by one or more missing teeth. A bridge is composed of two crowns placed on the teeth on either side of the gap and a false tooth/teeth (also a crown) in between. The life of a bridge lasts largely depends on the health of the abutment teeth.
Bridges have a number of advantages: they can help restore your smile and ability to properly chew and speak, distribute the forces in your bite properly by replacing missing teeth, and prevent remaining teeth from drifting out of position.
Dentures
Dentures are removable devices used to replace one or more missing teeth. Using existing teeth and gums for support and retention, the denture is able to restore function and aesthetics and prevent further drifting of the remaining teeth.
Complete Dentures
These used to replace missing teeth and are supported by soft and hard tissues of the mouth. They are removable. For people who are missing all their teeth dentures have a number of advantages: they can give patients a smile again, patients who previously were missing teeth can now chew their food, they allow patients to speak properly, and enhance esthetics. A disadvantage of conventional dentures is that since they are removable they rely on a patient’s hard and soft tissues for retention. This can be overcome by introducing appropriate number of Dental implants and using them for suport and retention.
Partial Dentures
These are an alternative for people that cannot have a bridge for any number of reasons. They serve the same purpose a bridge does: to replace missing teeth for functional and esthetic reasons. However, they are removable and are not cemented in the mouth. As such, they do not produce the same level of retention, comfort, and natural feel that bridges, or fixed partial dentures, provide. For retention partial dentures rely on soft and hard tissue support in the mouth as well as metal clasps that are anchored around specific teeth in the mouth.
