Dental Bridges in Edinburgh

A dental bridge replaces a missing tooth — or several — with a false tooth held in place by crowns on the teeth either side of the gap. It's fixed, so it doesn't come out, and it's usually the quickest fixed option. At City Dental Care on Earl Grey Street we'll tell you plainly whether a bridge, a dental implant or a denture suits your gap best — because the right answer depends on the teeth beside it, not on which treatment costs more.

Types of Dental Bridge

How Much Does a Dental Bridge Cost?

Private porcelain bridges are priced per unit, from £495 a unit. For a conventional bridge, each crown that holds it and each false tooth counts as one unit, so one replacing a single missing tooth — a crown on each side and the false tooth between them — is three units. What yours costs depends on the design, how many teeth are missing, and whether the supporting teeth need treatment of their own first. Your dentist gives you the total in writing after the assessment, before anything starts, and 0% finance is available on private treatment from £250 up to £5,000.

Bridges on the NHS

We also provide bridges on the NHS for patients registered with us as NHS patients. NHS Scotland provides conventional and resin-bonded bridges, normally for patients aged 17 or over whose teeth and gums are stable and healthy, who keep them clean, and whose bite suits a bridge. An NHS bridge is normally fitted at least six months after the tooth it replaces was taken out, and a bridge replacing a molar has to be needed to keep your bite stable. On the fee scale in force from 1 November 2025, if you pay NHS charges, a conventional bridge is £147.72 per unit and a resin-bonded bridge £85.08 per unit, and you never pay more than £384 for a single course of treatment; under-26s, pregnant women and new mothers, and people on certain benefits pay nothing. An NHS bridge, especially one of three or more units, may need approval from NHS Scotland before treatment starts; we'll tell you if yours does. We'll always tell you before any treatment whether it's NHS or private, and what it costs.

Looking After Your Bridge

Brush as normal, and clean under the false tooth every day by threading floss beneath it along the gum line — we show you how when the bridge is fitted. The teeth holding the bridge are still your own, so keep up your check-ups and hygiene visits so they and your gums are checked regularly. A patient leaflet from Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust notes that 10 to 15% of teeth supporting a conventional bridge may later need root canal treatment because the nerve inside the tooth dies.

Bridge or Implant? The Honest Trade-Off

A bridge is quicker, usually less expensive, and doesn't involve surgery — but it means crowning the two teeth beside the gap, which is a permanent change to teeth that may be perfectly healthy. An implant replaces the tooth on its own root and leaves the neighbours alone, at a higher cost and over a longer timescale. If the neighbouring teeth already need crowns, a bridge is often the natural choice; if they're untouched, an implant usually is. Our guide, implants, bridges or dentures, sets out the comparison in full.