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Suite 105, 747 Lake Bonavista Drive SE
Contact
(403) 278 - 2688
Kyle, was minding his own business, having a drink at the bar with some buddies when a good old fashion bar room brawl (just like you see in those western movies) broke out. Here’s the part where you know irony has a really bad sense of humour. As Kyle is trying to clear out of the area where the brouhaha is happening, he trips over a barstool and slams into the edge of an adjacent table, teeth first! Thats when he said buh-bye to his 2 front teeth and some of the supporting bone!
Kyle went to see his dentist the next morning and got the verdict that the 2 front teeth could not be put back in place and that a large portion of the supporting bone had been crushed. Due to the significant damage in the area, Kyle’s dentist referred him to my office. When I saw Kyle for his consultation appointment, he was wearing a removable “flipper” his dentist had made with 2 false teeth in the front and some pink acrylic to replace the lost bone and gum tissues. I commented that the flipper looked really good and Kyle could have something similar made for a final partial denture. Kyle didn’t want any removable teeth and wanted to get something as close as possible to what his natural teeth and smile looked like. After reviewing several different treatments, Kyle selected the one that would give him the best final result even though it was the longest treatment time and the most costly treatment to do. As he said, “Dr. Jeff, these are my front teeth and being 24 years old, I want to invest my money in getting my smile back now”.
So I assembled a team of specialists to treat Kyle. First, I got the oral surgeon to do bone grafts in the area. I then asked the orthodontist to move the side teeth into the space of the missing front teeth and then referred Kyle to a periodontist where I made a guide so that the gum tissues could be reshaped. Once Kyle healed from this, I referred Kyle back to the oral surgeon to remove the screws from the bone graft and place 2 implants in the exact position, depth and angulation that I had sent up. I then groomed his gum tissues and finessed his bite with Provisional crowns for the next 6 months.
Kyle’s treatment took 2 years to complete but in the end he got his natural smile back and no one could tell that his two front teeth were missing.
Shhhhhhh🤫 ……….Prosthodontists are dentistry’s best kept secret
See what Dr. Jeff Ceyhan can do for you!
When you have missing teeth, a prosthodontist or dentist can fill this gap or “bridge” the gaps in your smile with false teeth. A bridge then, is a false tooth (called a pontic) that fills in the gap in your smile that is attached to the teeth adjacent to the gap by cemented crowns. Another term for this is a fixed partial denture (fixed, because it attaches to the other teeth with a glue/cement). This is an example of a bridge to replace 4 missing front teeth. The end crowns on the left and right get cemented to the 2 teeth next to the gap in the mouth and the 4 pontics (false teeth) fill in the gap between the missing teeth. If the false tooth is attached to the adjacent teeth with some thin metal wire hooks, this is not a bridge. Dentists call this a removable partial denture because you can remove your false teeth by unhooking the wires from your mouth.
A dental implant is a root substitute so it is used when you have missing teeth. It is an artificial root made of titanium that looks like a screw (see photo). It’s inserted into the jawbone, under the gumline, to replace the roots of missing natural teeth. When the implant is healed, it fuses to the jaw bone so that you can use it as an anchor to attach artificial teeth like, dentures, crowns and bridges. The specialists that are involved with implant dentistry are, prosthodontists, oral surgeons and periodontists. The prosthodontists do all the planning for the implant and give you the artificial teeth, the oral surgeons and periodontists place the implant anchor in the jawbone and monitor the healing.
That is a good question and it depends on a lot of factors. Your prosthodontist or dentist would review these factors with you in helping you to decide what type of restoration would be best for you to replace the missing teeth. For an implant your dentist will look at the following information: do you have enough height and thickness of bone to place an implant into? Do the teeth next to the missing teeth need crowns or already have crowns? When you bite down, do you have enough space for an implant restoration and for the components? Do you have manual dexterity to clean around a bridge or around a deep implant? Do you want the gap filled as quickly a possible or are you willing to have temporary false teeth there for 3-6 months while the implant heals?
| Monday | 8:00am – 4:00pm |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 8:00am – 4:00pm |
| Wednesday | 8:00am – 4:00pm |
| Thursday | 8:00am – 4:00pm |
| Friday | 8:00am – 2:30pm |
Dental Design Prosthodontics is committed to providing high quality prosthodontic services in a comfortable environment.
