One missing tooth: which restoration fits

If a tooth is missing, the gap does not close. But nor does it stay as it is: the neighbouring teeth tip into it, the opposing tooth grows out of its socket, the bite changes.

The three ways

Bridge: quick, cheaper, costs two ground-down neighbours. Implant: more expensive and more elaborate, leaves the neighbours alone. Removable: rarely the first choice for one tooth, but possible.

When doing nothing is defensible

With a missing wisdom tooth and sometimes with the last molar, when the opposing tooth is missing as well. In all other cases the untreated gap is the start of a chain that gets more expensive later.

The comparison in detail

Can be found under Bridge or implant.