Tips To Take Care Of Your Dental Bridges
You have lost a tooth or several teeth. When you go to see your Hagerstown dentist they may suggest a dental bridge to fill in the gap. It’s important to fill this empty space as quickly as possible since your other teeth may shift to try to do just that – which will affect both how your face and jaw look, along with making it more difficult to speak and chew.
Once you get the dental bridge, it’s important to take care of it. Otherwise, you may find that you are going to have to have it repaired or replaced a lot more often than you would like. Fortunately, the things that you need to do to preserve the new addition to your mouth are very simple.
What Is A Dental Bridge?
While there are a few variations to dental bridges, they mostly involve one or two crowns with a false tooth, called a pontic, next to it. The pontic is what fills the empty space while the crown(s) anchor it. This will be a durable solution to the issue of your missing teeth.
The dentist will shave off some of your surrounding teeth to make room for the crown to fit and also support the pontic. If you don’t want that to happen, you may want to consider a dental implant. The process for dental bridges tend to be a lot shorter, though, which is another reason that people like them.
Watch What You Eat
You may feel like you have natural teeth again when you get the dental bridge. It’s true that the dental crown and the pontic are made of very durable material, but they are far from being unbreakable. That means that you should be careful about what you put in your mouth when you are eating. Otherwise, you risk damaging the dental bridge.
Foods that you should avoid include hard candies and some other more crunchy foods. Don’t crunch ice cubes in your mouth – that can also wind up causing the crown to crack. Also, stay away from chewing on things like pen caps. These can be hard habits to stop, but would you rather do that or have to shell out more money to have your dental bridge repaired or replaced?
Brush & Floss Every Day
This is not that different from taking care of your regular teeth, but you need to make sure that you are paying attention to your form. That means that you brush each quadrant of your mouth for 30 seconds. That adds up to 2 minutes. Using an electric toothbrush is a good idea since many of them can beep when the 30 seconds are up – and their fast-spinning bristles are able to do a bettter job than if you use a manual tooth brush.
See Your Dentist Regularly
Besides brushing and flossing, this is the next most important thing to do when it comes to caring for your dental bridges. See them for a twice-yearly cleaning and exam. they will be able to see if there are any issues with your bridge and tell you what you nee to do to get it looking good again.
Of course, you want to see your dentist if there are any issues with your dental bridge. Does it feel like something is coming loose? Are there cracks? Don’t wait – call the dentist’s office to schedule an appointment. That way, they can fix the issue or create a new bridge. If you wait, you can have worsening pain and more difficulty eating and talking.
Getting dental bridges can make you feel more confident about your smile and that is very important. You just have to make sure that you are aware of what you need to do to make sure that they last a long time and that you are diligent with your care of them. Then you will be able to show off your teeth at all times for a very long time.
Are you in the Hagerstown, Maryland area and need to see someone about dental bridges? Come to My Hagerstown Dentist & Dentures and talk with our experts about what we can do for you. Our staff will make sure that the entire process goes smoothly from the start and they will gladly answer any questions that you may have. Contact us today for an appointment.
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Hagerstown Dentist
Hagerstown Location
1303 Pennsylvania Ave.
Hagerstown, MD 21740
Phone: (301) 200-9585
