How then do we manage the area where Cleo’s tooth is coming out? If we leave the site alone the final result will probably look less than ideal, and could potentially be disasterous. To solve this we made a temporary bridge that was shaped anatomically correct, and placed slightly under the gum line. It therefore appeared to emerge from the gum tissue where the tooth used to be. The temporary restoration was used to actually shape this gum tissue as it healed. After a number of weeks we were able to continue with the bridge process.

Cleo had the non-restorable tooth taken out. When a tooth is taken out the body immediately starts to take away the bone. Basically the body is saying, “No tooth….no bone.” This is a problem we’ll look into further when we discuss dental implants. But in the esthetic zone of the front teeth this can lead to devastating results. As the bone leaves, the gum tissue goes with it. Soon the area where the tooth came out looks ‘caved in’ and the gum tissue has migrated to a higher level than the teeth near it. It looks horrible.

Here’s an area on a different patient that has had only a moderate loss of tissue after a tooth was removed. This is because a dental implant was placed in the area.

These were the complications we were working with after Cleo agreed to have her teeth crowned. The tooth shown below was not going to be kept. So she needed a bridge to replace and replicate this tooth. It should be straighter, as should all the others. And she wanted whiter teeth, too. She was tired of having dark, discolored teeth.

So Cleo wanted a change. And more importantly, there were functional and structural issues, too. The cavities she had developed were large and, after taking into account the size of the existing fillings, there were no other options than to crown these teeth. Also, she didn’t like to smile because her teeth were not straight and, as she put it, not pretty.

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