Can a fixed bridge be made immediately after braces?
In a teenager or young adult, the nerves and blood vessels in the tooth pulps are rather large. Drilling down these teeth for crowns may expose the pulps and require root canal therapy. Therefore, this type of treatment must usually wait until adulthood when the pulps are smaller. What options are available for a patient who has had a bone graft? Bone grafting the cleft site in the upper jaw creates a more normal arch and eliminates special restorative considerations relative to the cleft. A conventional fixed bridge as described above may be used. In many cases, only one tooth on either side of the cleft needs to be crowned, since the graft has stabilized the arch and added bone. If the teeth that hold the bridge are not otherwise in need of restoration, a resin-bonded fixed bridge may be chosen. This type of bridge requires much less tooth reduction of adjacent teeth, and there is no danger of nerve involvement. A porcelain replacement tooth is held in place by metal extensions cemen
