A tooth bridge is an oldie but a goldie.

It's been around forever, but a dental bridge is still a brilliant solution to a gap in your smile. Here’s why.

We read a fantastic article recently about a Mercedes car in Greece that clocked up a barely believable 2.8 million miles. The car in question is a 1976 240D, and was owned by a man called Gregorios Sachinidis. When he eventually decided that his faithful car had come to an end of its life, it was retired to the Mercedes Benz museum in Germany, where we’re sure it will take pride of place.

To help get you head around the mileage clocked up by this amazing Merc, 2.8 million miles represents around 112 times around the earth. And if you happened to be driving at a steady 60mph, the entire journey would take you almost three years.

As to why our interest was piqued by this article, we’re always interested in cases that prove there’s no need for the sort of throwaway society that we live in. Every year, millions of cars are consigned to the scrapheap, but have many more miles to give.

The same applies to countless other devices and gizmos n our homes, from throwing out a fridge that is still working to scrapping a laptop just because you want a faster model. We believe that respect should be shown to elderly models that are still functioning perfectly well. If you decide that you need a newer one for whatever reason, we believe that you should look to dispose of the old model to someone who will welcome it for its last years.

Our own world of dentistry is quite forward-thinking when it comes to being faithful to older treatments that our patients may have had in the past. For example, many of our older patients who come in for their regular check-ups will have dental bridges in place. This is a treatment that has become less popular these days, and alternatives like dental implants are rapidly becoming the go-to solution.

But would we suggest that our patients upgrade from the tooth bridge to a new-fangled alternative? Absolutely not. Because a dental bridge is one of the most robust and practical forms of sorting a missing tooth that’s available on the market.

And just because it’s been overtaken by newer technologies, it's still doing a wonderful job and there’s simply no reason to throw out a solution that is working brilliantly.

As to what the treatment entails, it is simply a form of bridging structure between the teeth on either side of the gap, and is used as the anchor for a fabricated tooth (or multiple teeth in some circumstances).

Once the bridge is in place, you can have complete confidence in it and tuck into all your favourite foods as normal.

And because your dentist can shape and colour the fabricated tooth so that it matches your existing teeth, nobody will even know you're wearing a bridge – unless you choose to confide in them.

If you'd like to read a little bit more on this topic, may we recommend the following article as a brilliant starting point - http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/guide/dental-health-bridges#2