Missing teeth are a somewhat common phenomenon in dental treatments, but how to approach their replacement is unique to each dentist. For crowns and bridges, ovate pontics is one particularly effective method.
Ovate Pontics for Crowns and Bridges
The benefits of this egg-shaped process are multitude, starting with the esthetic upsides to complex cases. Ovate pontics are beneficial to tissue profiles, treatment planning, and more. Still, they also come with specifications that make them more applicable to certain cases over others.
The design of ovate pontics is well-equipped so that they can be passive against tissue. They aren’t going to influence tissue form in any negative ways because of this.
Additionally, you can use them to create the highly-desired concave tissue profile. With other methods, this element in particular can be elusive and challenging to procure.
Along with leveraging ovate pontics in this manner, they also give you the illusion of an emergence profile. This comes about as a result of using a convex pontic.
All of these positives come with a price, which is that treatment planning has very specific parameters you must fall into. First and foremost, you must take into account the larger contact area needed. This is necessary for the tissue.
Similarly, you have to hone your technique so that you don’t use excess pressure. Guaranteeing beautiful gingival esthetics depends on how lightly you can exert pressure when forming tissue and papilla.
But that’s not all. You’ll also want to pay really close attention to what you have to work with from a tissue perspective. If there isn’t enough tissue thickness and ridge width, then you can’t proceed with ovate pontics. Unless of course your patient agrees to tissue augmentation.
Do you use ovate pontics in your dental practice? We’d love to hear all about it in the comments!