A dental bridge looks and feels like a normal tooth.

No need to leave a gap in your smile when a dental bridge can fill that gap to perfection. Here’s how.

As we’re writing this blog, the nation is still bathing in the after-glow of that amazing Irish victory over the Aussies on Saturday. It’s probably true that the win over the All Blacks was more significant, but for sheer grit and bloody-mindedness, this one took the biscuit.
 

If you didn’t see it, the victory was achieved in the face of an unbelievable rate of physical attrition. During the game, in the back line alone, Ireland lost Rob Kearney, Andrew Trimble and Jared Payne, leading to the bizarre situation of seeing scrum-half Kieran Marmion lining out on the wing.
 

This was by no means a dirty game, but the hits were unbelievably hard, on both sides. And not for the first time, we wondered aloud how so many players finish a game of international rugby in one piece!
 

This is even more remarkable when you consider that, unlike American football, the players don't even wear body armour. The only concession they make to safeguarding their bodies are scrum caps and mouth-guards.
 

The mouth-guard protectors make sense in a game where a blow to the mouth and teeth is almost inevitable during 80 minutes. But while it’s pretty much the norm at international level, it's a sad fact of life that many sportsmen and women at lower levels of various contact sports don't take this basic precaution.
 

Dentist all around the country will tell you about the Monday morning phenomenon of seeing a number of patients in the waiting room who have come a cropper on the playing pitch over the weekend – simply because they neglected to guard their teeth.
 

Sometimes they’re just looking for us to check up on a tooth that has become loosened on impact, but usually they’re with us because they've lost a tooth or two.
 

As a general rule, they have three options open to them, all involving a fabricated tooth of some form or another. They could opt for a tooth implant, for example, or perhaps a simple denture. But assuming that there are healthy teeth on both sides of the ‘gap’, a dental bridge is very frequently the optimum solution in terms of cost and effectiveness.
 

As the name suggests, a bridging structure is established between two healthy teeth, and a fabricated tooth is placed on this to fill in the gap. It’s a tried and tested treatment that’s been around for generations, and there are many benefits to it.
 

It restores your full level of functionality, and you can safely tuck into all your favourite foods without having to worry that your replacement tooth will crack under the strain.
 

And as well as functioning like your normal teeth, it will also look like your normal teeth. This is because your dentist can shape it and even colour it so that it blends in perfectly with its neighbouring teeth.
 

And even better news is that the typical dental bridge cost has come down a lot in recent times as a result of greater streamlining in modern dental surgeries. So next time you're taking to the pitch – whether it's against Australia or the team from the neighbouring parish – make sure you take care of those teeth. While we love to see you, we hate seeing you on Monday morning!
 

If you'd like to read up on this topic in greater detail, here’s a helpful starting point - http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/dental-health-bridges#2