Maryland bridge or Implant

[Uri]

Hi

I have a missing front tooth after I lost the tooth in a bike accident two months ago. I am currently wearing a partial plate and I am looking to replace it with a fixed solution.

My dentist has offered to either do a Maryland bridge or an implant. The Maryland bridge seems a lot cheaper than the implant and more simple and more straight forward.

Are there any risks with going for a Maryland bridge rather than having an implant? Could I go for a Maryland bridge for now and in future have a dental implant?

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

You could go for a Maryland bridge for now and then replace it with a dental implant in future. The major things that you have to be aware of is that the average life a maryland bridge is around 5 years. The average life if an implant is longer than that.

Also as time goes on after the extraction and if an implant is not placed into the socket, the bone in the socket area resorbs, so if in future you decide you wish to have an implant, you may find that you need bone augmentation or bone grafting for the implant.