If you have lost several teeth there are typically two solutions available to you, separate crowns on dental implants or a bridge attached to a dental implant. Not every missing tooth needs to have an implant beneath it, a bridge can be fitted to a single implant on which we can place two or more crowns, therefore replacing adjoining teeth.
The importance of replacing multiple missing back teeth (your molar teeth) cannot be under-stated, if you are missing front teeth there is an obvious motivation to consider dental implants as they will restore your smile.
Molars are the large multi-rooted teeth at the back of your mouth that are designed to do the hard work of chewing your food, they are the power-houses of your bite. When molar teeth have been lost, all of your chewing workload gets transferred to the single-rooted teeth at the front of your mouth. These front teeth are simply not designed to grind and crunch food in the way your molar teeth are, and these excess stresses on your front teeth can cause damage in the longer term.
If you are missing a number of teeth, they may either be replaced with individual implants (one for each missing tooth), or if they are adjacent, by joining two or more implants together. This latter option can make implant treatment more affordable when patients are missing many teeth.
When a number of teeth are missing, which might occur if a previous crown and bridgework has failed or if somebody has been involved in a serious accident, dental implants can be used to support a number of teeth.
When these teeth are linked together it is called a bridge. If a large number of teeth have been lost at the same time it may be necessary to carry out a bone graft, to develop the site where a dental implant might later be placed.
