Bob Conte The 4.3.x CEREC Chairside software has opened up the possibility of creating both provisional and permanent bridges in-office. With more and more dentists taking advantage of this feature, many questions have come up regarding pontic design and how to control the anatomical form of the pontic.
Whether your preference for design is ovate, ridge-lap, bullet, modified ridge-lap or otherwise, the design is dictated by how the margin is drawn in the edentulous space. In this example, my preference was for a modified ridge-lap pontic. To accomplish this, the margin or baseline is simply traced over the edentulous ridge staying within the extraction site interproximally and lingually. At the facial the margin is extended over the ridge trying to mimic the cervical contours of the adjacent teeth.
The proposal will be a nice modified ridge lap pontic.
Minor adjustments to the tissue side of the pontic an either be done in the software prior to milling or on the lab bench with diamonds and polishing wheels after the bridge has been milled.
