The Origin of the Maryland Bridge.

The dental world was introduced to a revolutionary and esthetically pleasing adhesive-retained fixed partial denture for the replacement of anterior missing teeth in the early 1980s.(1, 2) Patient comfort was enhanced along with minimal pulpal trauma to adjacent teeth that may occur with the extensive cutting of tooth structure with the use of full coverage crowns. Proffered by faculty from the University of Maryland, this tooth replacement was ultimate known as the Maryland Bridge, and it has been used extensively to the benefit of many patients. However, as with anything in history, especially the history of dentistry, the evolution of these types of improvements often comes from information buried in the vaults of the numerous dental publications that arose in the 1700-1800s, vaults that are only too often never opened to the riches within. So it was also with this prosthetic replacement as significant evidence exists in 1887 that this prostheses was used routinely by restorative dentists.(3) Dr. Allison R. Lawshee from Trenton, NJ, USA provided the dental world with this replacement prosthesis almost 100 years prior to the what we know today at the Maryland Bridge. While not possessing the properties of contemporary etching and adhesion, minimal tooth damage was highlighted and sound principles of cementation were advocated Figs. 1, 2 and 3. Historical evidence and enlightenment for today's generation at its finest.