Dental prostheses: which restoration fits when

Dental prostheses replace what is no longer there or no longer holds. That ranges from a single crown on a badly damaged tooth to a full denture for an edentulous jaw. Which restoration fits is decided not by the wish but by the findings: how many teeth are missing, where they are missing, how firmly the neighbours stand and how much bone is still there.

The three basic forms

The crown encases an existing tooth that is too badly damaged to manage with a filling. The tooth stays; it only gets a new surface.

The bridge replaces one or more missing teeth and supports itself on the neighbouring teeth. Those have to be ground down for it – that is the price of a fixed solution without surgery.

The denture is taken out. It comes into play when too many teeth are missing to span with a bridge, or when the remaining teeth would not carry a bridge.

Fixed or removable

That is the first fork in the road. Fixed prostheses feel closer to your own tooth and need no getting used to when speaking. Removable prostheses are cheaper, easier to clean and can be extended later if further teeth are lost. Both are advantages, and neither applies to everyone.

What the findings dictate

A bridge needs load-bearing abutment teeth. An implant needs bone. A telescopic denture needs at least a few of your own teeth to hold on to. Where those conditions are missing, the question is not what one would prefer but what is possible at all – and whether the condition can be created, for example by a bone graft.

And the costs

Statutory health insurance pays a fixed allowancebased on the findings and not on the restoration chosen. Anyone who wants more than the standard care pays the difference. What that means in an individual case is set out in the treatment and cost plan – and that is something you should be able to read.