Dental Extraction: Why and How We Remove Teeth
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Nobody wants to lose any of their permanent teeth. While your milk teeth came and went and were replaced by a new set, they won’t grow back once you lose them.
Losing teeth puts the health of your smile at risk. Bacteria can make a home in the gap, neighbouring teeth become more prone to decay and infection, gum disease, jaw bone deterioration, and dental drift are all potential problems you’ll face.
Because losing teeth affects your oral health, we never perform extractions unless they’re essential. So, why do we remove teeth, and what happens during and after the procedure?
In this guide, we will discuss dental extractions and tell you everything you need to know.
There are several possible reasons to remove teeth. These include:
When your permanent teeth first emerge, you have two molars at the backs of each side of both arches of teeth. Much later, a third molar may grow in your late teens to mid-twenties. Often, these erupt without difficulty.
Sometimes, if your other teeth are too large or your jaw is too small, there’s no room for your wisdom teeth to erupt. They may become impacted, pushing against your other teeth and growing at an angle.
The tooth may remain completely hidden or partially erupt. In many cases, they cause considerable pain and could bring health issues to your existing teeth, gums, and jaw. Impacted wisdom teeth increase the risk of infection. Where necessary, we’ll extract the wisdom tooth.
Infections are caused by bacteria entering the tooth. If we can treat you early, we’ll perform a root canal treatment to save your tooth. Sometimes, the infection kills the tooth and spreads. We may remove a tooth if we cannot save it.
Your teeth may appear crowded if you don’t have enough space along your jaw. Braces can straighten the teeth. In some cases, teeth are removed before treatment. This creates space for the teeth to spread out.
We will perform an extraction if you’ve had an accident and the tooth is damaged beyond repair or poses a risk to your other teeth.
How a dental extraction is performed will depend on the tooth’s condition. If there is enough tooth showing above the gum line, we may be able to perform a simple extraction. After giving you a local anaesthetic, we’ll loosen the tooth using an elevator tool before removing it using forceps. Simple extractions are quick and painless.
You may need a surgical extraction if the tooth is badly damaged or impacted. This may involve small incisions in the gum or tooth. This is performed under anaesthetic to ensure maximum comfort.
Immediately after extraction, your mouth may feel numb for a while. This is normal. Don’t eat anything or drink warm liquids while you feel numb. You could scald or bite yourself.
After a tooth is extracted, taking care of the extraction site is vital to avoid infections and other complications. Take it easy for the rest of the day and avoid strenuous activity.
Don’t brush that area of your mouth when you’re cleaning your teeth for the next day. Similarly, you should avoid flossing around the gap. This could irritate or damage the extraction site.
After a day, you can start to rinse your mouth frequently using warm salt water or mouthwash. It may take a couple of days for any swelling to go down. During this time, you can manage discomfort with ibuprofen or paracetamol.
Until the treatment site clots, some blood is normal. If clotting doesn’t occur and pain continues after a few days, get in touch with us.
We recommend replacing the missing tooth as soon as possible. We can do this with dental bridges, implant-retained bridges, partial dentures, and dental implants.
Dental implants are the best option. However, dentures and bridges both have benefits and are more cost-effective.
Extractions are performed out of necessity. Although the treatment may make you feel nervous, extractions are painless and brief. We’ll talk you through everything you need to know before the procedure to help you feel more at ease. Call us today to schedule your consultation.
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