Dental Implants or Bridges ?

U.S.Dental ( also known as Tufts Dental )

Dr.Gina Sohn - Tufts Graduate
U.S Dentist in Seoul / Licensed in MA, CT, NJ
http://www.drginasohn.com
Tel 02-553-7512 / Overseas +822-553-7512

It is a great question to prospective dental patients with one or two missing teeth.
They go to dentists for opinions and often times end up being confused.

Dental implants are one of great medical break-throughs in history. They made a dramatic paradigm shift in almost all sides of dentistry.

Before them ;
  1. Bridges were the best options for replacing one or two missing teeth.
  2. Full or Patial dentures were placed for entire or multiple missing teeth.
  3.Root canals were routinely performed to save teeth that were causing severe pain from nerve inside.

Nowadays;
  1. Dental Implants are the best option for replacing one or two missing teeth.
  2. Dental Implants are the best option for entire or multiple missing teeth.
  3. Root canals are not the number one choice for teeth causing pain big time.
      Rather, people want to have those teeth pulled out and place implants instead.

Then,what's the point of oscillating between dental implants and bridges?
Let's try to make a list of pros and cons of those two options.

Bridges
  1. Do not invlove surgeries.
  2. Take only 1-2 weeks to complete.
  3. Are inexpensive.
  4. Bone quantity / quality is not important at all.
 Dental Implants
  1.Do not damage any other adjacent teeth, which may develop into other problems on and on.
  2. Preserve bones around themselves.
  3.Have higher success rate.
  4. Do not catch dental caries.
  5. Flossing gets easier.

Conclusion ;

  * Dental implants are recommended for most missing area.
  * Bridges are recommended for people who
        1. Do not want surgeries.
        2. Do not have enough bone around the missing teeth.
        3. Need crowns on adjacent teeth also because those teeth have big fillings or are a lot decayed.

Gummy Smile

U.S.Dental 

Dr.Gina Sohn - Tufts Graduate
U.S Dentist in Seoul / Licensed in MA, CT,NJ

FACEBOOK
http://www.drginasohn.com/
Tel 02-553-7512  Overseas 822-553-7512
Yongsan / Itaewon area

We all want to have a perfect smile where teeth are white and straight with a full upper lip shining right above them.
A gummy smile is a smile that shows a lot of gums between teeth and upper lip. Slightly displayed gums might be considered charming but if a few milimeters of gum shows, it often  mars someone's confidence.
Then, are there ways to reduce gummy smiles?

Ideally, treatments embraces dental and medical specialties.
The simplest way of gum reduction is cutting extra gums covering teeth. If this method is not sufficient, then, bone underneath gum gets removed and wait until gums nicely heal up fllowing new bone line.
If gummy smile is too severe, then, upper facial bone must be shortened by a plastic surgeon.
Most cases are well handled by recontouring either gum only or gum and bone underneath,though. :-)

For moderately severe cases, bone gets removed first, and wait for 6 weeks. Then, gums gets removed.
Sometimes, veneers are placed on the newly lengthend teeth to perfect one's smile. In this cases, one should wait for another 3 months after gum surgery until gum tissues finally settle.