PROSTHETIC TREATMENT

General meaning of prosthetic treatment includes in vitro designs created for regaining of a lost function. We can give examples like arm prothesis or leg prothesis except for oral prothesis.  Intra orally we can state that it means regaining function and aesthetics with created prothesis which are substituted for lost tooth or teeth. Prothesis that are created for this content includes:

-Removable prothesis;

1-) Total prothesis; a kind of removable prothesis that mimics teeth and soft tissue (gingiva) for totally edentate mouth.

2-) Partial prothesis; removable prothesis which is supported by the patients own teeth and created for regaining lost function and aesthetics when the number of missing teeth are many.

3-)Fixed prothesis;

Fixed prothesis are more comfortable structures than removable prothesis  in terms of usage. Preparing a single tooth for restoring the  damage or aesthetic appearance and making a cover over it is called crown; when there are missing teeth, preparing adjacent teeth and putting teeth at the middle space by having a support from adjacent teeth is called bridge. Metal- porcelain is a commonly used material for fixed prothesis. Disadvantage of this material is having more opaque appearance than natural teeth due to it’s metal framework. Recently with the light of improvements, we have different material options for fixed prothesis, some of them are; zirconia, empress, e-max.

Zirconia; Crowns -bridges which are created by using zirconia instead of metal framework which is used in metal -porcelain prothesis. Despite zirconia is a kind of metal, it has white color. Therefore, we can mimic the translucency  (optical features) of natural teeth better by choosing this material.

E-max or empress; A material which is produced with a compressed ceramic framework and it doesn’t contain any metal inside. It can be accepted that this is our best option for aesthetic aspect. However, it is more favorable to use it for single crowns instead of long bridges due to being more fragile and requiring more sensitive work than the other materials. Usually we prefer this material for anterior teeth aesthetic procedures.

Laminated Veneers; When we are talking about smile design, smile aesthetics we consider this type of treatment primarily. Laminated veneers are created as a consequence of precious works of laboratories which we worked through the impressions after minimal preparation from the front side of the teeth. Opportunities that laminated veneers offer us are changing the color and shape of teeth.

Prosthetic process:

Detailed examination and learning the expectations

Preparation of teeth (preparation of the space of prothesis)- taking impressions (moulding)

Laboratory stage

Try in session (sessions)

Cementation of the final prothesis (luting)