I am getting a dental implant. I’ve had the implant part done and we’ve been working on the temporary replacement tooth while I heal. My dentist suggested a Maryland bridge. We used the ceramic wings because we thought that would be more esthetic. However, it keeps falling off. One of the adjacent teeth is a natural tooth the other is a porcelain crown. My dentist tried a stronger cement and that did not work either. Now he is considering the metal connectors. Will that cause discoloration to the tooth?
Evan
Dear Evan,
Yes, metal will cause some discoloration. However, there are even bigger issues to consider here. I don’t think your dentist understands how a Maryland Bridge works. It cannot simply be bonded to the adjacent teeth. That is why it is failing. It does require bonding. However, there also needs to be a notch made into the tooth in order to help retain it. You have an additional complication where one of your adjacent teeth is a porcelain crown and not a natural tooth. Bonding holds better to natural teeth, so that other one will be at a greater risk of failure.
Whenever you have to make a change to the structure of the tooth, I would not call that a temporary tooth replacement. Because you’d have to drill that notch and the replace the missing structure with some dental bonding, I would say that is permanent damage. Most dentists would suggest you simply use a dental flipper until the crown for your dental implant is ready to be placed. Not only will this not require any structural changes, but it is also significantly cheaper than what your dentist is currently using.
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