I have two dental implants with a natural tooth between them. Now the natural tooth needs to be extracted. Is it possible to get a Maryland bridge to place between the two dental implants? Will the bridge bond to the porcelain crowns?
Andy
Dear Andy,
While, technically, you can attach a Maryland Bridge to porcelain crowns, they will not be as secure a bond as you would get to natural tooth structure. The bond to porcelain will be weaker. Plus, you have the added complication of the fact that very few dentists know how to do this bonding procedure.
Another complicating issue is that for the Maryland Bridge to stay properly, it is not a simple matter of it being bonded to the adjacent teeth. It will also require a grove to be cut into the crowns. This damages them.
Ideally, your dentist would have planned ahead. Knowing that you have two dental implants and there is a good chance that you will need a third, he or she should have placed the first two in a way that would have the abutments parallel. That way, when the middle tooth went it would have been a simple matter of removing the two dental crowns and adding a bridge to those teeth with a false tooth suspended between them.
Your best option at this point is to see if there is enough room to place a third dental implant in there. Talk to your dentist and see if that is a possibility.
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