A Personal Dental Bridge Story

Lovelyn from the Philippines writes about her dental bridges:
I remember when I was in 8th grade that my front tooth was chipped because of a basketball playmate accidentally hitting my mouth with his elbow. That was one of the most embarrassing moments for me as a young girl to have my classmates see my altered smile!. After that incident, I went home and told my mom that I wanted it removed. She said lets ask the dentist and we went the next day . I was a little bit afraid but my chipped tooth looked and felt like the tip of a knife which helped me overcome my fear. The dentist asked me what happened to my front tooth and I explained. Instead of removing it as I imagined he said that my front tooth is healthy and he can restore it. “How?” I quickly replied. He then proposed to put a dental jacket (crown) on it.  Because I didn't understand the technicalities of it, I let my mom decide.  After several minutes, my mom told me that I would be getting the jacket instead of pulling off the tooth.  The process took 3 days to complete, from the preparation of the chipped tooth to the actual fitting of the jacket. Now, I went back to playing basketball with a huge smile and my playmates asked me about my chipped tooth wondering why they didn’t any longer see it. I then realized how I benefited from the procedure.

I enjoyed having the jacket; it was like a part of me.  Some years later another incident happened, three of my front teeth were damaged in a similar situation playing basketball and this time one needed to be extracted because the impact in my tooth was so strong that it nearly uprooted it. Luckily, 2 of them could have crowns placed. The damaged tooth that was in the middle of the two teeth could not be restored. This time my dentist suggested placing 2 crowns and a bridge in the middle. The procedure took 3 weeks to complete because we let the wound heal first before placing the crowns.
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This simple procedure was a great solution and I am again playing basketball without fear and my teeth are stronger than ever. I have my teeth checked yearly to maintain the appearance and strength of the bridge, but otherwise my teeth are never a problem. I am told that I can upgrade the bridge to porcelain when I decide to and want to enhance the appearance, but for now I am thrilled that my life didn’t have to dramatically change due to these incidents.

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