Porcelain bridge

March 20, 2011 by Dr. Ng HW

Porcelain Bridge

Nowadays, more and more people want to replace their missing teeth with the material that is as near as possible to their natural teeth. Porcelain fused to metal bridge is one of the conventional choice. However, because of the presence of metal in this type of material, the bridge somehow look dull, opaque and non-translucent. On top of that, it has a ‘dark’ margin due to the thinning of porcelain at that area especially dark gum line that is very obvious when patient smile. Porcelain bridge is invented to over come all the problems above. Because of its metal-free property, porcelain bridge can look like ‘real’ teeth and strong enough to withstand the biting force. The preparation on the teeth prior to porcelain bridge placement is same with the conventional bridge. Currently, for missing single tooth, we provide glass type of porcelain (eg. IPS e.max®) while for multiple missing teeth, zirconia bridge (eg. Procera®) will be used.

Cases of porcelain bridge

Case one: Missing front tooth

This young lady had a missing upper front tooth. She wanted replacement which looked as natural as possible. A porcelain bridge was suggested.

Unfortunately, the space for the front left central incisor was inadequate for a front tooth!!

Impression of her upper jaw and a study model was fabricated for assessment.

Diagnostic wax-up of the her bridge was made on the study model. Then, the patient’s teeth were prepared for bridge construction.

The porcelain bridge was constructed by laboratory technician. Back view of the bridge (below).

Full porcelain bridge IPS e.max®.

The porcelain bridge was cemented with transparent resin cement.

She was very pleased with the final outcome. Now she can smile!

Case 2: Badly decay front teeth

This young man presented with a badly decay front teeth with both lateral incisor placed behind. He wanted to make over all his front teeth.

In the assessment, we found numerous problems: decay front teeth, lateral front teeth placed backward and the canines looked unnatural. We started with root canal treatment on his front teeth. Due to backward position of the lateral incisors, we have the teeth extracted and after healing, he was ready for bridge construction. We proposed to him to have 2 porcelain bridge (each consist of 3 unit tooth) from his canine to the other side of his canine. (Want to know more about root canal treatment click here).

An study model was duplicated from his mouth and diagnostic wax-up was done to reassemble the final outcome of his bridges.

The teeth was prepared for bridges construction under local anaesthesia.

A provisional bridge was fabricated for him to wear while waiting for the final bridge

Finally, the porcelain bridges were cemented with transparent resin cement

The back view of the bridges with healing socket of the extracted lateral incisors.

Now, he can smile confidently!!