Implants or a Dental Bridge: Which Is Best For Me?

Dental implants and bridges are considered the two most effective forms of tooth replacement. Here’s how to decide which will suit you best.

It’s never too late to replace lost teeth, and you should try to preserve as many as possible throughout your life.

When choosing a replacement, you need to consider your budget, age, lifestyle, and the health of your surrounding teeth. From there, we can help you decide which solution will fulfill your needs best.

At Bayside Dental Arts, in Bayside, New York, Andrey Ilyabayev, DDS, and our team provide several options for missing teeth, including dental bridges and dental implants.

Comparing your options

Traditional full dentures have a serious drawback: They require any remaining teeth to be pulled, leaving your jawbone without any stimulation. If you get dentures, the bone in the jaw continues to dissolve, changing the shape of your face and requiring regular refitting of your full dentures.

In contrast, partial dentures, known as dental bridges, use your surrounding teeth for support. We use crowns on the adjacent (abutment) teeth combined with a metal framework to hold the bridge in place, or we can support the bridge with implants, which resolve the issue of bone loss.

While bridges require a specific hygiene routine, they can restore your smile.

But if you want the fullest experience of having your smile back in both form and function, you may need to replace the missing teeth from the bottom up.

Dental implants are titanium posts that osseointegrate into your jawbone, acting like actual tooth roots by stimulating blood flow and preventing further bone and adjacent tooth loss.

Implants can support restorations for individual teeth or a restoration that replaces multiple teeth or even an entire arch of teeth. Dental implants can last the rest of your life, in contrast to bridgework, which usually needs revision or replacement every decade or so.

Making your decision

At Bayside Dental Arts, Dr. Ilyabayev goes over different factors to help you decide which solution will provide the most benefits. If cost and downtime are issues, a dental bridge might be the best option for at least the short term.

For implants, the process is lengthier and more costly, although the results are more permanent and beneficial. We can also use dental implants to support bridges, giving you an alternative, whether you are missing several teeth or an entire arch of teeth.

If you’re still unsure about how to best replace your lost tooth, Dr. Ilyabayev and our team can answer your questions. To schedule a consultation, get in touch with us at Bayside Dental Arts in the Bayside neighborhood of Queens, New York City, by calling 315-908-0804, or book an appointment online.