Have you ever looked at someones smile and immediately noticed that they had dark rings or black around the necks of the teeth?  Maybe you have noticed this on yourself around older dental work.  Many people are under the impression that those dark rings are cavities or or some other problem, but many times it is nothing other than metal.  Metal?  Yes.

In the past few decades, alloys that have platinum, gold, nickel, and other metals in them have been used as substructures for dental work.  Dental labs build the foundation of metal and then bake tooth colored porcelain on top of them.  These restorations are then put on the teeth in the form of “crowns” or “bridges”.  Unfortunately in the early days, these dental restorations didn’t really look very natural and many times the metal was actually designed to show around the necks of the teeth.  Just like in the picture below…

Today, techniques are vastly improved. And, even though we sometimes use alloys under crowns and bridges, the technicians at the laboratories have become masters at masking it out. However, the most natural looking dental crowns and bridges are made from all porcelain without metal. Below is an example of a 3 unit all porcelain bridge, without metal, that we put in today.

A bridge is a dental restoration that replaces a missing tooth by using teeth on either side of the space for support. It is kind of like 3 crowns in a row and the middle crown is sitting on the gum tissue. The most challenging part of this procedure is to make it look like the “fake” tooth is coming out of the gums naturally. Can you guess which tooth is the one that is fake?

Since dental implants involve the removal of a tooth and replacing it with an artificial tooth, many patients assume that an oral surgeon is best qualified to do it. This can be a flawed assumption.

Periodontists, who specialize in gum disease, may be a better option. Periodontists have special training in gum tissue and underlying bone in the mouth, which are significant issues in dental implants.

Whether you use your general dentist, a periodontist or an oral surgeon, you should ask these questions:

What is your success rate with implants? It should be at least 94 percent.

How long is the procedure? It should be no more than thirty minutes.

Do you use a surgical guide? A surgical guide directs the implant drilling system and provides for accurate placement according to the digital surgical treatment plan. It is important to confirm that the dentist doing your implant uses a surgical guide.

Do you use a CT scan and 3-D imaging software? This technology assesses bone structure and identifies the best sites for dental implant placement while avoiding vital structures like nerves.

Many dentists hold themselves out as implant specialists. You need to screen them very carefully before entrusting them with this surgical procedure.