Conventional or Porcelain Fused to Metal Dental Bridge

There was a time when losing teeth meant total loss of function and esthetics. Many ideas have evolved over the years to provide patients with the best possible care. Dentistry has come a long way. These days dental bridge has become a basic treatment option with the improvement in dental techniques and increase in dental awareness. Most of my patients decide to get bridges done as opposed to getting removable dentures if the clinical condition permits the placement of such prosthesis.

However, as a practicing dentist I routinely face the same question in regards to the time commitment for the service. On many occasions the expectations of the patients are not realistic because they are not aware of the actual steps involved in the fabrication of a dental bridge.

I have not found any web site where the entire process of bridge fabrication has been explained according to my satisfaction. Here I will take it upon myself to provide you with the information on the steps involved (with the time frame) to make it easier for you to understand what goes on throughout the process : (click here for a diagram of a dental bridge) :

1. Visit # 1 :

If you are scheduled to get the initial impression taken that is a good thing. The dentist will send the case to the laboratory to have the temporary / provisional bridge fabricated even before he starts to prepare the teeth.

Advantages :

a) That saves you and them some time that would otherwise be needed during that visit.

b) That will give you a better esthetic result until you get the final bridge.

Now let us look at the rest of the steps needed :

2. Visit # 2 (about 7 -10 days from Visit # 1) :

a) Preparing the teeth,

b) relining and inserting the provisional bridge

c) taking the impression for the fabrication of the bridge

If it is one of the smallest bridges (i.e., replacing only 1 missing tooth with the preparation of 2 teeth ....1 in the front and 1 in the back of the gap .............it can roughly take up to 2 hours if everything goes well.

The impression will then be sent to the laboratory. Most of the dental practices do not have an in-house lab. That adds to the time required, as I will explain later.