Do you think you need to have a tooth (or teeth) extracted?
Dental extraction are needed for many reasons including deep decay, a nerve infection, a gum infection, a broken tooth or a lack of bone. Wisdom teeth can need pulling if they pack food, when they cause gum infections, or when they damage their neighbors.
Fortunately, there’s more good news than bad news about extractions! Thanks to oral sedation, extractions are way more comfortable and way less scary than they were for our grandparents. No more dental scenes that resemble silent (or not-so-silent) films. Plus, with dental implant options available, losing a tooth no longer means stepping closer to full dentures.
The Bad News: Infections are Dangerous
We’d rather not talk about bad news, but we see that too few people realize how dangerous dental infections are to the whole body.
Because teeth and gums have easy access to the blood, infections can spread quickly to other parts of the body if not treated properly. If you have an infected tooth, a dental extraction will eliminate the infection. Waiting too long can have dangerous consequences.
Video – The process of making a digital denture
Dental Extraction: Simple or Surgical?
Unlike some general dental offices, our office is equipped to handle both simple and surgical dental extractions. What’s the difference between simple and surgical extractions? Simple extractions are just that, simple. These are the teeth that come out without any extra procedures. Surgical extractions require additional bone or gum work to help the tooth come out as easily as possible.
How does that help you?
First off, it saves you extra trips to the oral surgeon, which means fewer appointments. Fewer appointments means less hassle and less expense.
Putting Your Safety First with a CT Scan before having your dental extraction
For complicated dental extraction cases, we always plan treatment with the help of a 3D CBCT Scan. This is a critical part of how we protect our patients and give them the best results possible. Knowing exactly what is under the gums and around every tooth helps prevent unwanted surprises!
reviewing CBCT before performing teeth extractions
Emergency Dental Extractions
In cases of deep infections or jagged tooth fractures, it can be necessary to have the tooth extracted immediately to stop the infection from spreading or to protect the cheeks or tongue from getting cut up. If you think that you need an emergency tooth extraction, you should seek dental help immediately to minimize complications. Click here to schedule.
Wisdom Teeth Extractions
We perform wisdom teeth extractions on a case-by-case basis. Thanks to our CT Scanning Technology, we offer detailed third molar evaluations and we complete uncomplicated cases in our office.
Because our first priority is to see our patients happy and healthy, we refer complicated third molar cases out to specialists to insure that our patients get the care they need. Request a third molar evaluation now!
reviewing CBCT before performing teeth extractions
Not Sure If You actually NEED an Dental Extraction?
Hearing you need an dental extraction when you’re not sure why it’s necessary is scary! How can you know if the tooth truly needs to come out or if it could actually be restored? Isn’t it best to keep your own teeth as long as possible?
We meet new patients all the time who are looking for a second opinion and feeling frustrated that another dentist wanted to take a tooth out that the patient is pretty sure could be saved. What we’ve discovered is that about 5% of the time, there was a restorative option available that was overlooked. However, about 95% of the time, the patient does truly need the tooth pulled. The problem is that the first dentist didn’t take the time to adequately explain why.
It’s easy as a dentist who does teeth all day long every day, to forget that patients don’t do teeth all day long. It’s very important for a dentist to remember that patients need extra information in order to feel comfortable making decisions, especially about losing teeth. Dentists also have different personal guidelines about what saving a tooth means.
Guidelines for when teeth should be extracted:
- Untreatable level of infection inside the tooth or around the surrounding gums
- Bone around the tooth has dissolved and can’t support the tooth
- Broken or decayed tooth to the point that it can’t support a crown
- Infected tooth with history of several root canal treatments
Why these guidelines? Because I don’t believe that fixing a tooth just to have it break again in a month counts as saving a tooth. Every one of these scenarios could be patched, but would explode as a toothache, dangerous infection or deeper trauma within days or weeks.
If you’re not sure why your tooth needs an dental extraction come see me for a second opinion.
We’ll take a look and a 3D-CT radiograph give you a clear explanation of what is going on either with that one tooth or in your whole mouth depending on how much you’d like to know.
Schedule Your Consultation
Whether you have teeth or not, you deserve a smile you can be proud of!
A beautiful smile changes how you look. It also changes how you live. Imagine laughing and eating freely with friends again! If you want to smile with confidence, we can help. Take the first step today. Schedule your consultation!
