My eight upper front teeth have a bridge. I am trying not to get overly anxious about this, but I just moved from Maine and I don’t have a dentist yet. The second from my left front tooth chipped. Can it be fixed without having to re-do the entire bridge?
The same techniques that repair a porcelain crown can be used to repair the broken tooth in your bridge.
The chipped porcelain must be cleaned and prepared for bonding. If the bridge is porcelain fused to metal, it will then be rinsed and carefully etched with hydrofluoric acid or with a microetcher that is used to blast fine aluminum oxide particles.
The porcelain will be primed with a silane coupling agent and coated with bonding resin. A metal bonding agent and an opaquer will be used to treat any exposed metal. Composite resins that are translucent and that can be highly polished will be layered to match the properties of the porcelain.
You will need to take care of the composite repair. Extensive alcohol consumption softens composite, and smoking and extensive coffee drinking tend to stain it.
We recommend that you find an expert cosmetic dentist to repair the tooth. He or she will have the necessary material and equipment to properly repair and bridge. You won’t be able to tell that the tooth was broken.
The blog post is sponsored by Lowell cosmetic dentist Dr. Michael Szarek.