Replace a Missing Tooth With a Fixed Dental Bridge
A missing tooth left untreated shifts the surrounding teeth, strains your bite, and accelerates bone loss beneath the gap over time. Dental bridges are one of the most reliable ways to fill that space with a fixed, natural-looking restoration that restores chewing function without surgery. Dr. Chris Cappetta, DDS, has been placing custom dental bridges at Fountain of Youth Dental for over 35 years and is a member of the Academy of General Dentistry.
Patients from Live Oak and Converse choose Fountain of Youth Dental for bridge work because Dr. Cappetta evaluates each case honestly before recommending anything. The practice sits on Medical Dr in the heart of San Antonio’s South Texas Medical Center, where every restorative decision is backed by 35 years of clinical experience and a no-pressure approach to treatment. If a bridge is the right answer for your situation, he will tell you. If an implant makes more sense long-term, he will tell you that too.
What Is a Dental Bridge and How Does It Work
A dental bridge fills the gap left by one or more missing teeth using a false tooth, called a pontic, held in place by crowns on the adjacent teeth. The result is fixed and permanent. You brush and maintain it like a natural tooth and it does not come out. The most important thing most patients do not know before choosing a bridge is that getting a traditional fixed bridge requires permanently reshaping two healthy teeth on either side of the gap to accommodate the anchor crowns. That trade-off is worth understanding before committing. Fountain of Youth Dental offers three types of bridges depending on your clinical situation:
- Traditional fixed bridge: two crowns on adjacent teeth anchor the pontic in the gap, most common type
- Cantilever bridge: one crown on a single adjacent tooth used when only one neighbor is available for support
- Implant-supported bridge: two implants anchor the bridge without touching or reshaping adjacent teeth
- Custom porcelain or ceramic material color-matched to surrounding teeth
- Permanently cemented in place by Dr. Cappetta, not removable
In his 35 years at Fountain of Youth Dental, the most common clinical finding Dr. Cappetta sees when evaluating bridge candidates is that one or both abutment teeth already have significant fillings or existing crowns, which actually makes them stronger anchor candidates than virgin teeth and changes how he approaches the preparation. He evaluates this at the consultation before any reshaping begins.
What to Expect at Your Bridge Appointments
Getting a traditional dental bridge at Fountain of Youth Dental takes two appointments over two to three weeks. At the first appointment Dr. Cappetta examines the abutment teeth, confirms the gum tissue is healthy, removes a small amount of enamel from the anchor teeth to make room for the crowns, takes digital impressions, and places a temporary bridge to protect the prepared teeth while the permanent one is fabricated in the lab. Most patients leave that first appointment with a functioning temporary in place the same day.
At the second appointment the temporary bridge comes out, the permanent bridge is fitted and checked for bite alignment, adjusted as needed, and permanently cemented in place. In Dr. Cappetta’s experience, the most common reason a bridge case requires more preparation time than initially expected is discovering gum inflammation around the abutment teeth at the first appointment that needs to be resolved before the crowns are seated. He addresses this before any reshaping begins so the final bridge has the healthiest possible foundation to anchor to.
