Can you imagine that, if we had a problem with a finger, we had to cut it? We would be mutilated and we would lose function and aesthetics. Fortunately this does not usually happen. However with teeth, until recently, every problematic tooth was extracted almost systematically.
Preventive medicinewas gradually introduced into society and dentistry was not an exception. Now we take care more of our teeth and we fight more to keep them. Either way it will always be necessary to remove those which are severely affected by periodontal disease (pyorrhea), by large cavities, infections or trauma.
Dental Implants & Dental Bridge
Tooth loss involves changes in the form of chewing and aesthetic changes. Many people only give importance to aesthetics. Hardly anyone can be without a front tooth, but it is surprising how many people have no teeth in the posterior areas.
Ideally, everylost tooth should be replaced (except, of course, the wisdom teeth) within a reasonable period of time, preventing other teeth from changing their position. Until recently, if a patient lost all his teeth, they could only be replaced with classical dentures. Currently, most of these cases are solved with dental implants.
If the patient has missing only some teeth, the solution was to replace those teeth with the clasical removable denture with hooks to hold around the adjacent teeth. For replacing those teeth with a fix denture we should have to drill de adjacent teeth so we can put the crowns over them creating a bridge. This was the clasical treatment for replacing few teeth. Nowadays we can replace the absence of these teeth with dental implants, avoiding drilling the adjacent teeth. Implants act as an artificial root for placing the definitive fixed crowns over them. Even though clasical fixed bridges still have their indications, for example if adjacent teeth are affected with decay, they would be corrected and protected with crowns.
* A publication of Dr. Simon Pardiñas, especialist in Periodontics and Oral and Maxilofacial Surgery.
