Interim Partials and Bridges

Temporary or interim appliances serve many useful purposes. Indicated when age, health, poor finances, or lack of time precludes a more definitive treatment,  and can often constitute an integral part of a prosthetic treatment plan.

An interim appliance is often used in young patients who, because of an accident, rampant caries, or hereditary partial anodontia, are missing either anterior or posterior teeth. Because permanent restorations are usually contraindicated for some time in a growing child, interim partials and bridges are an excellent method of choice for maintaining the patient’s esthetics and function. Elderly patients whose health contraindicates the lengthy and grueling appointments required to construct permanent fixed replacements for missing teeth are excellent candidates for interim restorations. These patients can usually tolerate the simple clinical procedures needed to construct and insert a temporary appliance. For those patients who have suffered a financial setback, cost of an interim partial or bridge is considerably less than that of the definitive treatment eventually required -- and as such, far more likely to be selected.

Other indications for interim appliances (observed in general practice on a daily basis):                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

• To maintain space

• To re-establish occlusion

• To replace visible missing teeth (while definitive restorative procedures are being accomplished)

• To serve while the patient is undergoing periodontal (or other prolonged) treatment

• To condition the patient to wearing a removable prosthesis

• When healing is progressing after an extraction or a traumatic injury

• To maintain function while accomplishing minor tooth movement