Dental Crowns and Bridges: Your Questions Answered

Dental crowns and bridges are essential procedures in restorative dentistry, offering solutions for damaged or missing teeth. These treatments not only enhance the appearance of your smile but also improve the functionality of your teeth. Whether you’re dealing with tooth decay, injury, or gaps, understanding these procedures can help you make informed decisions about your dental health.

What Are Dental Crowns?

A dental crown is a cap placed over a damaged or decayed tooth. Crowns restore the tooth’s shape, size, strength, and appearance. They are typically made from materials such as porcelain, ceramic, metal, or a combination of these. Here are some common reasons you might need a dental crown:

  • To protect a weak tooth from breaking
  • To restore an already broken tooth or a tooth that has been severely worn down
  • To cover and support a tooth with a large filling
  • To hold a dental bridge in place
  • To cover misshaped or severely discolored teeth

The procedure usually involves two visits to the dentist. During the first visit, the dentist prepares the tooth, takes an impression, and places a temporary crown. The permanent crown is then placed during the second visit.

What Are Dental Bridges?

Dental bridges literally bridge the gap created by one or more missing teeth. A bridge is made up of two or more crowns for the teeth on either side of the gap, known as abutment teeth, with a false tooth or teeth in between. These false teeth, called pontics, can be made from gold, alloys, porcelain, or a combination of these materials.

The process for getting a bridge is similar to that of a crown. It involves preparing the abutment teeth, taking impressions, and placing a temporary bridge until the permanent one is ready.

Benefits of Crowns and Bridges

Both crowns and bridges have numerous benefits:

  • Restoration of Functionality: They allow you to chew and speak properly.
  • Aesthetic Improvement: They enhance your smile and overall appearance.
  • Prevent Shifting: They prevent remaining teeth from shifting out of position, which can lead to bite problems and other issues.
  • Durability: With proper care, crowns and bridges can last many years, providing long-term solutions to dental issues.

Caring for Your Crowns and Bridges

Maintaining crowns and bridges involves good oral hygiene practices:

  • Brush and floss daily to remove plaque and prevent decay.
  • Avoid chewing hard foods, ice, or other hard objects.
  • Visit your dentist
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Staying Healthy On A Busy Schedule

Everyone has encountered the struggle of trying to stay healthy while balancing a busy schedule. When your schedule is hectic with work, school, appointments, your children or a combination of them all, healthy eating is often at the bottom of your to-do list. Luckily, there are ways to stay healthy with a busy schedule. Here’s how:

Juicing for Weight Loss

Juicing is a quick, easy and convenient way to stay healthy on the go. Juicing is the extraction of juice from fruits and vegetables. This can be done by hand or with an electrical juicer. Juicing allows you to receive your daily nutrients without having to carry that bulky lunch bag. All you need is your favorite fruits, vegetables, your juicer, and a drinking bottle. Juicing for weight loss is also convenient because you can juice your fruits and vegetables at night and grab them to go in the morning.

Meal Prepping

Meal prepping has become one of the most common methods of planning and preparing meals. In order to meal prep, you will need a few healthy food choices, measuring cups and your favorite Tupperware. You can choose one day of the week to prep meals for the entire week and place them inside plastic containers for easy access. Each container can be labeled with meal-type and day of the week to help you stay organized. Meal prepping will save you tons of time during the week if juicing is not your thing.

Dinner in a Hurry

With a busy schedule, cooking dinner can be dreadful. Most people with a busy schedule prefer to order take-out or stop by their favorite fast food restaurant on their way home. This is convenient but may cause weight gain, lower energy and not to mention an unfavorable budget increase. To avoid this, you may research a few quick dinner recipes to shorten the process. A few dinner recipes to consider are; “healthy taco salad with ground turkey”, “10-minute pita bread pizza” or even a “vegan loaded mashed potato bowl”. These quick dinner recipes are all completed in under 30 minutes. These quick dinner recipes are also healthy alternatives to some of the best dishes.

Keeping Track of Your Activity

Although eating habits are a large portion of staying healthy, so is physical activity. It is important to remain active throughout the day to help you burn those god forbidden calories. With a … Read the rest