A dental bridge, also known as a fixed partial denture, is a dental restoration used to replace a missing tooth by joining permanently to adjacent teeth or dental implants.

There are different types of dental bridges, depending on how they are fabricated and the way they anchor to the adjacent teeth.

A dental bridge is fabricated by cutting the teeth on either side of the missing tooth or teeth by a preparation pattern determined by the location of the teeth and by the material from which the bridge is fabricated. In other words, the abutment teeth are reduced in size to accommodate the material to be used to restore the size and shape of the original teeth in a correct alignment and contact with the opposing teeth.

The materials used for the dental bridges include gold, porcelain fused to metal, or in the correct situation porcelain alone. The amount and type of reduction done to the abutment teeth varies slightly with the different materials used. The recipient of such a dental bridge must be careful to clean well under this prosthesis.

A porcelain dental bridge replacing a missing front tooth