One tooth is gone. Maybe it came out last month. Maybe it has been missing for two years and you have got used to chewing on the other side.
You now have two fixed options in front of you. A bridge uses the teeth on either side of the gap to carry a replacement tooth. An implant puts a titanium post into the jaw where the root used to sit, and a crown goes on top of that post.
Both are real solutions. We fit both every week at Kondapur and at Vizag. Which one suits you comes down to the condition of the two teeth beside the gap, how much time you have, and what you want the next fifteen years to look like.
The two teeth on either side of the gap are shaped down so they can take crowns. A single unit is made in the lab with three joined parts: a crown on the left tooth, a false tooth in the middle, and a crown on the right tooth. That unit is cemented in place. Nothing is removable.
Visit one is the preparation and the scan, and you leave with a temporary. The lab takes about ten to fourteen days. Visit two is the fitting. Most patients are done inside three weeks.
A 3-unit bridge runs Rs 12,000 to Rs 35,000. Material is what moves the number. Porcelain fused to metal sits at the lower end, all-ceramic in the middle, zirconia at the top.
Ten to fifteen years is the honest expectation, and daily flossing underneath it is what gets you there. A floss threader takes half a minute.
A titanium post goes into the bone where the root used to be. Over three to six months the bone grows onto it and grips it. After that, a connector is fitted and a crown is made to match your other teeth.
Four visits over four to six months. The waiting is bone healing, so it cannot be shortened safely. The teeth beside the gap are not touched at all.
Rs 45,000 to Rs 88,000 for the implant and crown together. The implant brand is the main variable, from ADIN and ARKA at the entry level to Nobel Biocare at the premium end. The crown adds Rs 10,000 to Rs 18,000 depending on whether you go metal-ceramic or zirconia. Most of our patients land between Rs 55,000 and Rs 70,000.
The post itself commonly goes twenty years or more. The crown on top usually needs replacing somewhere around year ten to fifteen.
Look at the two teeth on either side of the gap.
If they are already crowned, or heavily filled, or root canal treated, a bridge is using structure that has already been reshaped. Nothing healthy is being cut into. That is a sensible use of a bridge, and it is faster and cheaper.
If those two teeth are untouched and healthy, a bridge asks you to shape them down permanently to carry a tooth that was never their job. An implant leaves them alone. For most people in that situation, the implant is the better long-term call even though it costs more today.
We show you your own scan and point at the teeth in question, so you can see which category you are in rather than take our word for it.
This is worth doing on paper, because the upfront numbers mislead people.
Bridge: roughly Rs 25,000 now. A replacement somewhere around year twelve, call it Rs 30,000. If either anchor tooth develops decay underneath, that is another Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000 to sort out. Realistic fifteen year total: Rs 55,000 to Rs 1,05,000.
Implant: roughly Rs 60,000 now. A crown replacement around year fifteen, call it Rs 18,000. The two neighbouring teeth stay untouched. Realistic fifteen year total: around Rs 78,000.
The gap between the two is smaller than the first quotes suggest. That does not automatically make the implant right for you. It just means the bridge is not the bargain it looks like on day one.
Plenty of people live with a single gap, especially a back one, and it is a fair question to ask.
Here is the useful part. A gap is easiest to fill well while the bone under it is still full and the teeth beside it are still standing straight. The earlier you look at it, the more options stay open to you and the simpler the work tends to be. A consultation and a scan will tell you exactly how much room you have to think. Most people are pleasantly surprised.
This is the single biggest reason NRI patients choose a bridge over an implant.
A bridge fits comfortably inside a two to three week trip. Preparation in the first few days, lab work while you are with family, fitting before you fly out.
An implant needs two trips. Placement on the first, crown on the second, three to six months apart. If you are back in India once a year anyway, that works fine. If not, the bridge is the pragmatic answer.
Send us your X-rays on WhatsApp before you book flights. We will tell you what fits your dates before you commit to anything.
You come in, we look at the gap and the teeth around it, and we take a scan. Our iTero 3D scanner does this without moulds or putty. If we need to see bone depth properly, we take a CT.
Then we sit down and show you the images. You get both options costed on paper, with the trade-offs written out, and you take it home. There is no decision expected on the day.
Dr. Rajesh Kumar has been placing implants and fitting bridges here since the late nineties. The reason experience matters on this particular question is that the right answer changes case by case, and someone who has watched both options age in real mouths over twenty years has a view worth hearing.
Smile Super Speciality Dental Clinic has been running since 1997, with branches at Kondapur in Hyderabad and Maharani Peta in Visakhapatnam.
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