Single visit natural tooth pontic bridge with fiber reinforcement ribbon.

periodontal disease, or endodontic failure is a true esthetic emergency for a patient. A missing anterior tooth has implications for how we present ourselves to others and affects how we feel about ourselves. If the tooth or tooth crown is still intact and the patient brings it with them to the dental office, it is easiest to use it as a natural tooth pontic, joining it to the adjacent teeth with an adhesive composite with fiber reinforcement ribbon. When the tooth crown is not available, a denture tooth or a composite resin pontic can be shaped to fit the space of the missing tooth. Techniques to replace a single missing anterior tooth by adhesive splinting using a natural tooth pontic, denture tooth, or composite resin tooth pontic embedded in wire, metal mesh, nylon, mesh, and cast metal frameworks have been described.1-6 The inherent problems with these techniques have included lack of bonding between composite and metal or nylon, leading to fracture at the composite interface. Furthermore, to extend the durability of the restoration with submerged wires and mesh grids, composite resin had to be thick and bulky to minimize fracture.7,8 This thick and overcontoured restoration led to an increase in food and plaque retention and difficulties in maintaining periodontal health (AQ: ok as edited?). The introduction of bondable fiber reinforcement materials made from ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene and glass allows for the placement of both periodontal splints and thin, but strong, bonded composite resin based single-visit bridges (Table 1). (AQ: please provide Table 1) The author has been using one brand of fiber reinforcement ribbon, Ribbond reinforcement ribbon (Ribbond), for more than 16 years with success. The lock-stitch weave of Ribbond ribbon provides multidirectional reinforcement when embedded within composite, creating a laminated structure that increases flexural strength and is resistant to fracture.9-11