Advantages
- Restoring a natural look to a person's mouth/smile
- Bridges may last from 5 to 15 years depending on the patient's oral health
- Maintaining normal facial structure (by preventing bone loss from the jaw at the site of the missing tooth/teeth).
- Restoring the ability to chew food efficiently
- Preventing adjacent teeth from moving or tilting in the gap
- Takes relatively less time to make compared to
- The process does not involve surgery
Disadvantages
- Bridge preparation would require removing tooth structure from at least one of the adjacent healthy teeth
- The supporting teeth on each side of the bridge may not be strong enough to support the bridge. If any of the teeth holding the bridge develops a problem, the bridge may need to be replaced or repaired
- A risk of decay is present if the bridges over the supporting teeth are ill-fitting (thus allowing bacteria and plaque to form underneath the bridges)