Dental Restorations in Petaluma, CA – Crowns & Bridges

Despite our patients’ best efforts, a tooth may become severely decayed or even fall out. To treat these conditions, Dr. Yvonne Szyperski offers dental restorations that protect damaged dentitions and replace missing adult teeth. Serving the families of Petaluma, Cotati, and Rhonert Park, restorations at North Bay Smiles include dental crowns and fixed dental bridges.

Dental Crowns

Dental crowns are caps that cover teeth affected by significant decay, serious dental erosion, cracks, and breakage. Often used following root canal therapy, dental crowns protect teeth from further decay and the everyday stress a tooth experiences. The end result is a tooth restored to optimal health, saving it from a potential extraction.

Dr. Szyperski offers different types of dental crown to fulfill your specific restorative dental needs. For most patients, a porcelain crown or zirconia crown is an ideal choice because they help restore both the health and the appearance of a tooth. Porcelain and zirconia are strong, body-safe materials that mimic the look of a naturally healthy tooth. Unless the patient has additional oral health factors that would wear down the crown too quickly, pure porcelain or pure zirconia crowns can serve these dental needs.

Before and After

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After

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*Individual results may vary

In some circumstances, however, porcelain and zirconia crowns may not be the best solutions for your restorative dental needs. In these circumstances, our Petaluma dentist offers porcelain fused to metal (PFM) crowns. PFM crowns are particularly useful for teeth which have undergone root canal therapy, as the metal masks the dark color of the tooth while the overlaying porcelain matches the color, sheen, and function of the adjacent teeth. Dr. Szyperski will work with you to determine the best crown material for your dental needs, helping you receive the best treatment possible.

Got missing teeth? Here’s how you can ‘bridge’ that gap!

Yet another great way to fix gaps in your smile—a bridge can be handy in fixing missing teeth. Surgery is not required for this restoration which is another great benefit for those who do not like invasive techniques. A bridge can be secured on to neighboring teeth, next to the gap and can be customized and prepared relatively fast. Watch the video to learn more.

Video Transcript

A bridge is a non-surgical way to replace one or many teeth. A bridge uses the adjacent teeth as anchors to support the missing tooth or teeth. With today’s dental advancement – a bridge can be fabricated in a fairly short period of time, using a metal or nonmetal foundation. Don’t let that missing tooth affect the way you speak eat and smile. Bridges yield immediate results that last a lifetime. Ask your dentist what type of bridge maybe right for you.

Dental Bridges

In the event that one or more adult teeth have been lost to decay, Dr. Szyperski can replace them with a fixed dental bridge.

Made of porcelain fused to metal, porcelain only, or zirconia, a fixed bridge consists of one or more crowns that fill a gap between the remaining natural teeth. This crown could be supported one of two ways, depending upon whether you have dental implants. A traditional dental bridge requires two anchoring crowns, or abutments, to be placed on the teeth adjacent to the gap. The abutments support the bridge span, or pontic, which replaces missing teeth. Implant-supported dental bridges, however, are anchored in place by dental implant posts and do not require grinding the adjacent teeth; they are best used to replace two or more teeth in a row.

However, dental bridges are not right for everyone. Whether they are right for you will be determined by our Petaluma dentist, based on the locations of missing teeth in your smile. If you have many missing teeth throughout your smile, a partial denture may be more appropriate for your dental restoration needs.