Single Tooth Replacement in Palm Beach Gardens & Jupiter

Single Tooth Replacement

The health of your smile depends on many factors, including a full set of healthy teeth. While a single missing tooth may not seem as urgent as an entire arch of missing teeth, this condition can severely disrupt the balance of your smile. Dr. Jay Ajmo offers sophisticated solutions for single missing teeth, including mini implant-supported dental crowns. To learn more about how we can replace a single missing tooth with a custom dental crown or bridge, Contact our Palm Beach Gardens practice today.

Should You Worry About A Single Missing Tooth?

With the exception of Wisdom Teeth, that problematic set of third molars that erupt sometime in the late teens or early twenties, every single one of your teeth serves 3 vital functions:

• Your teeth help you make many of the consonant sounds necessary for normal speech.
• Your front teeth help with biting into foods, while back teeth chew, or masticate, food. Proper chewing is an essential initial step in the digestion process. Without it, our bodies cannot absorb all the nutrients from the food we eat.
• When you lose a permanent tooth, your remaining teeth naturally begin to move toward the space left behind. This shifting effect can throw your teeth out of alignment, leading to worn enamel, an improper bite, and a higher risk for tooth decay, gum disease, and TMJ disorder.

Replacing a missing tooth allows speech and chewing ability to resume. It also forces the remaining teeth to stay in position, thus preventing the problems associated with drifting teeth.

Ben's teeth were hopeless and he wanted to look and feel like he had his own teeth. Dr. Ajmo performed complete dental reconstruction with implants and permanent bridgework under IV sedation.

Actual Patient of PGA Dentistry

Traditional Bridge

A bridge, or Partial Denture, consists of a replacement tooth supported by 2 adjacent dental crowns. To place a dental bridge, Dr. Ajmo must first prepare the adjacent teeth by removing a portion of the enamel. Crowns on both ends of the bridge are then bonded into place to suspend the bridge’s pontic over the empty tooth socket. Note that a bridge can feature more than one pontic to replace multiple lost teeth in a row.

With proper care, the average dental bridge can last many years before it may need replacing. Although it provides a reliable solution for filling gaps left by missing teeth, many patients don’t like the idea of having to place crowns on healthy teeth.

Implant-Supported Crowns

Dental Implants restored with crowns mimic the root-and-crown configuration of a natural tooth, and provide a more true-to-nature tooth replacement option. Depending on your case, Dr. Ajmo can place a Traditional Implant or a Mini Implant.

Dental implants provide a host of advantages over traditional bridgework. They do not require support from crowned teeth, meaning that despite the need for surgical placement of the titanium post, dental implants are a more conservative solution. Dental implants last a lifetime if cared for properly. In addition, implants stimulate the jaw from within, helping maintain healthy bone density over the years.

Although Dr. Ajmo is a regionally recognized expert in the placement and restoration of dental implants, he understands that they’re not right for every patient. You can feel confident that Dr. Ajmo will always recommend the solution that he believes will work best for your situation, and we will not pressure you to undergo a treatment that you do not need or want.