Bridge is Loose: Would Dental Implants Help?

Hi Charles,

If I understand you correctly, you want to have your dentist construct a bridge from a tooth, across an edentulous space (an area of a missing tooth) and attach the bridge to an implant.

This is a poor plan. Implants are anchored directly to the bone, while teeth are held into bone by small fibers called the periodontal ligament. Implants therefore have no 'give' when depressed (pushed on). Teeth have much more give. In essence then, the implant will be supporting its own crown, the pontic (false tooth over the space), and the crown on the tooth. This much force will cause a failure of the implant due to overload.

A better solution would be to place two implants, one in the already missing space and a second in the space of the missing tooth. Each crown would be independent and this solution is predictable and a good long-term solution.

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