The reasons for replacing missing teeth or a single tooth vary greatly from person to person. From a patients viewpoint, considerations such as appearance, chewing ability or a worry about further deterioration of the remaining teeth are all common reasons to requesting replacement teeth.

A dentist will usually have the same reasons in mind when examining your mouth, but he or she will also be looking at the upset to the balance between the way the teeth meet and slide over each other (your occlusion) and the stress this can produce within the jaw joints and muscles. Loss of a number of back teeth can also lead to abnormal or accelerated wear and tear on the remaining front teeth. This can all happen with the loss of only one molar tooth in certain individuals.

On the other hand, many people can function very happily with many missing teeth. Every case is very much an individual one and the decision of whether to replace teeth, why it might be a good idea and indeed what would be the most appropriate method is decided jointly by the patient and dentist after assessing all the aspects including most importantly your desired end result.

These days, the way you can replace teeth are as follows;

1. Removable partial or full dentures, either acrylic or a skeleton metal framework.
2. Fixed (non-removable) bridges, either bonded in place or made up of crowns on the neighbouring teeth with a false one suspended in between. These are very secure and can look and feel like natural teeth.
3. Implant supported crowns or bridges, where we replace the missing tooth root with a titanium Implant and then we use it to support a single crown or if several teeth are missing, to support bridges much as we do with bridges on natural teeth.

There are points for and against each option and what is best for you can only be decided by a full, detailed examination of your mouth and discussion with your dentist who will explain all the relevant issues in patient friendly language!

Examples of these types of replacements are shown below.

		All of the teeth on the right hand side are a denture. Note: the good colour match of the teeth and gums which were custom tinted to match the patients natural tissues.

Pre-treatment - note the missing upper right incisor and the crowns on the central incisors which are too light in colour.		Final smile restored with a conventional bridge which has a more 'natural' appearance

Pre-treatment, Note: irregular, dark teeth		Teeth were whitened and smile "broadened" using veneers on back teeth. Patient elected to have instanding teeth extracted and replaced with bridgework to give a more 'even' smile