Tag Archives: bonding to porcelain

A maryland bridge between two crowns

I have two dental crowns that are on top of dental implants. I am now losing the tooth between them. Is it possible to have a Maryland Bridge placed there and attach it to porcelain crowns?

Kay

Dear Kay,

Diagram of a Maryland Bridge
A Maryland Bridge

While technically the answer would be “Yes, you can place a Maryland Bridge between two porcelain crowns.” it is not easy. Ideally, you would want to bond the wings of the bridge to tooth enamel, which would give you your strongest bond. Bonding to porcelain crowns is tricky, Very few dentists even know how to do that and it may not hold up.

Hopefully, your dentist had foresight. Realizing you had two dental implants with a tooth between them, he or she should have thought about what to do if the middle tooth needed to be replaced.

Planning ahead, you would place the implants in a way that the abutments are parallel to one another. Then, instead of cemented crowns, you would use screw-retained crowns. That way, when the middle tooth needs to be replaced, your dentist would simply unscrew the two crowns and replace them with a single dental bridge.

If your dentist didn’t plan ahead for that, you always have the option of having a third dental implant placed there.

Whatever you decide, it is going to take a dentist with advanced skills, so choose who does your procedure carefully.

This blog is brought to you by Lafayette Dentist Dr. Mike Malone.