Crowns, Veneeers & Bridges

A crown is something that fits over the visible part of a natural tooth, like a cap over one's head. The main purpose is to protect any remaining tooth structure and restore function. Depending on the amount of tooth loss, be it due to decay-only or decay-and-root-canal-treatment, sometimes the crown alone will replace all missing tooth structure; while in other cases, the bulk of the missing tooth structure will be rebuilt with other dental materials prior to the construction of the crown.

A bridge is one that replaces one or more missing teeth while utilising two or more natural teeth present at each end of the gap as support. Imagine the Sydney Harbour Bridge with its two pylons supporting the steel structure that hangs above the water. During function, the supporting abutment teeth will be withstanding all the functional (chewing) forces being placed on the bridge. It is therefore very important that the supporting abutment teeth are strong enough, and sufficient number of natural teeth are recruited for this purpose, so to reduce the possibility of failure. And because of this factor, it is not always possible to replace all missing teeth with a bridge.

	Teeth adjacent to the missing tooth are used as supporting abutments. They are milled down to fit crowns which will support a pontic (fake) tooth between them, all joined up in one piece.
	The 3-unit bridge being fitted.