Dental Crowns & Bridges
Cracked and broken teeth aren't attractive to look at and can lead to other oral health problems; missing teeth also look unappealing and affect your ability to chew and interact confidently with others.
If you have damaged or missing teeth, Dr. Amy Wenninghoff can help your smile with beautiful, durable crowns and bridges at her Lincoln, NE, dental office. A dental crown rebuilds a broken tooth to its ideal shape and function, and a dental bridge is a prosthetic tooth that uses adjacent teeth to hold it in place.
How We Use Dental Crowns
Dr. Amy typically recommends dental crowns to:
- Rebuild a worn-down tooth
- Replace large stained fillings
- Protect a tooth after root canal treatment
- Strengthen teeth affected by excessive dental wear
- Perfect the aesthetics of a discolored or oddly-shaped tooth
- Restore a dental implant
Types of Dental Crowns We Offer
We offer dental crowns made of porcelain, metal, or porcelain-fused-to-metal. All these materials restore comfortable tooth function, but many patients prefer porcelain crowns because they mimic a natural tooth's appearance.
The Process for Getting a Dental Crown
It typically takes two visits to complete a dental crown. First, Dr. Amy removes a layer of tooth enamel to prepare the tooth and makes a temporary crown to wear while you wait for your final crown.
She works with only the top custom dental labs that match the crown to fit your bite, tooth shape, and the natural white shade of your teeth. At a subsequent visit, our dentist in Lincoln removes the temporary, ensures that your final crown fits well with your bite, then cements it into place.
Dental Bridges Replace Missing Teeth
Losing a tooth impacts your smile and confidence dramatically and adversely affects surrounding teeth. Teeth adjacent to the missing tooth may start to drift and move into the space and open spaces between teeth where food can get trapped.
Tooth loss can also lead to jawbone loss and damage to remaining teeth that withstand greater chewing force to accommodate the missing tooth.
How a Dental Bridge Works
A bridge is an excellent option to replace a tooth if you aren't a dental implant candidate or don't want to wait months to complete the process. The bridge is anchored with crowns to teeth on either side of the missing tooth, and a natural-looking artificial tooth sits in the gap.
Like dental crowns, bridges may be made of metal, ceramic, or ceramic covering metal.
Getting a dental bridge takes two visits, similar to a dental crown. You will receive a temporary bridge, so you don't have to walk around with a gap in your smile while you wait for the final restoration. After we cement your bridge in place, you'll want to give it a few days to settle in, and then you can resume normal chewing.
A fixed bridge is not removable, so we will teach you how to clean around your new restoration so that it will last for many years. Oral hygiene aids like floss threaders, super floss, or an interdental cleaner are very effective, and you can purchase them at any drug store.
Solutions for Broken, Decayed, and Missing Teeth
Broken, decayed, and missing teeth detract from your appearance, don't function comfortably, and impact your self-confidence. At our dental office, we work with your needs to provide solutions like tooth crowns and bridges to return comfortable chewing function and allow you to interact confidently with others.
If you live in Lincoln, NE, or the surrounding communities of Hickman, Bennet, Palmyra, Syracuse, and Roca, Dr. Amy Wenninghoff would love to help you with beautiful, lifelike crowns and bridges.
Please call us at (402) 413-6686 to schedule an appointment to discuss your dental needs. We look forward to helping you!
