Robust dental lab daily receives many big dental cases, including big implant cases. Some are digital scans, while some are dental impressions. However, many dentists talk about their failure with big dental cases. As an experienced dental lab, today Robust tells you why temporary bridges are important for big dental work.
1.For correct bite relationship
The dental bridges are beautiful, but they are completely out of occlusion.
In many big dental cases, there are only a few abutments or natural teeth. In some cases, there is even no natural tooth at all. It is very hard for even experienced doctors to take correct bites, because there are only few supporting points. If the bite relationship is wrong, doctors will find the mid-line of the final dental work is off, or the occlusion is too short or too high. In a word, if the bite is incorrect, the whole big case could be useless. And it requires remake.
With temporary bridges, patients can try and obtain a comfortable bite relationship. If the bite is wrong (too high or mid-line is off), dentists can easily make adjustments. Later, dentists take a new bite with the temporary bridge in the mouth. With the help of temporary bridges, the bite can usually be perfect, because there are enough supporting points. Finally, we can finish the work in one go, and you will find the work is amazing.
2. For correct fitting
The bridge does not fit on the stone model
There could be big undercuts for a long bridge. We can help prepare teeth or block undercuts in lab, but it could make fittings problematic, or even result in remakes.
If fitting is bad, the whole work is useless, even if the shade matches well, the shape is perfect, or the work is full of details. However, if we find the fitting is wrong with temporary bridges, the cost is small. Doctors can make easy adjustments, and then take new impressions.
3. For correct margins
In this example, ff the patient does not smile, the bridge is beautiful. But if he opens his mouth, we can see the open margins. With this margin, there will be hygienic problem.
With big dental work, it is common that patients’ gums are seriously swollen right after teeth preparation. In this situation, it is very likely that doctors take impressions without clear margins. Suppose we make a zirconia bridge right away, doctors could find the fitting is perfect, but some margins are open (especially for implant dental cases). It is because gums swell right after teeth preparations, but recess after 7 to 10 days. Many dentists would ask to fix margins by adding porcelain, but in many cases, we will have to remake the whole work. It is because the margins usually open too much to fix.
Doctors can take new impressions and photos, if they find open margins with temporary bridges. Since the gums are in normal condition this time, we can make work with perfect margins.
4. Save time and money
You may think trying temporary bridges first is a waste of time and money, but it is actually to the opposite. I would like to take a real case as an example. One of our dentist clients insisted on finishing an upper long bridge directly, though we thought it was inappropriate. Later, he found the bite was not right — the left was too short, while the right was a little too high. He said he spent hours on adjusting the bite and fitting, since it was a PFM bridge. Then he marked and shipped the work back to us for repair. We did exactly what he asked according to his mark, even though we still suggested it should not work. To his dismay, the work was still not right. Later, he sent us many pictures and shipped back the work to us, along with new impressions and new bites — we had to start over again.
Shipping back and forth takes time and money. Spending hours on adjustments is also a waste of time and money. This doctor could have just tried fitting and occlusion with a long temporary bridge. With easy adjustments, he could have taken new impressions (if needed) and taken new bites. In the second shipment, the whole work could have been finished directly with perfect results.
Actually, we, as a dental lab, do not like dental cases being adjusted severely either. We want the nice shade, anatomy and finishing details stay there. Even if it is finally placed, a frequently-adjusted dental work would not be beautiful. With a temporary bridge, we will have nice fitting, occlusion and margins.
