The natural teeth need to be trimmed down slightly to allow crowns to be fitted on them. This is a fixed replacement option – it does not need to be removed from the mouth like dentures do.

One variant of a bridge is a cantilever bridge, where the replacement prosthetic tooth/teeth are only supported on one side. Another variant is a Maryland bridge, where the prosthetic tooth/teeth are supported by little metal or ceramic wings on the natural teeth instead of crowns. These options may be viable if there is not too much pressure applied on the prosthetic tooth/teeth.

There is a limit to the number of teeth that a single bridge can replace. Having too many prosthetic teeth on a bridge will put too much stress and pressure on the natural teeth that support the bridge.

Bridges required two visits to complete. The first visit involves shaping the natural teeth and then using a special digital camera to scan into the computer a mould of the teeth and the space created by the missing tooth. The digital mould is then e-mailed to a dental laboratory where the bridge is constructed. At a second visit, the constructed bridge is then cemented onto the teeth.