We typically use our restorative treatments to save teeth, preventing dangerous infections or gum disease from causing them to become lost. However, sometimes a serious oral health concern arises that needs a tooth extraction. In today’s blog, your Overland Park, KS, dentist will explain when we prescribe an extraction, and what you can expect from the process.
The Extraction Process
The extraction process means surgically removing one or more teeth from your smile. Prior to the procedure, we can administer not only a local anesthetic to the area around the soon-to-be-removed tooth, but also provide sedation to ensure you enter a calm and relaxed stated with little to no memory of the procedure itself. We want to make sure you stay calm and comfortable throughout the proceedings! After we extract the tooth and suture the area closed, you will return home with detailed aftercare instructions and prescribed medication to help ensure a complication-free healing process.
Preventing Wisdom Tooth Impaction
One major reason we prescribe this option is to address wisdom tooth impaction. In our late teens and early 20s up to four new molars could erupt, known as wisdom teeth and sometimes referred to as third molars. For some people, they arrive without complication, but for many they could only partially erupt, causing a painful impaction that increases the risk of misalignment, infection, damaged teeth, and discomfort. To avoid these negative changes to the health and appearance of your smile, we can actually remove them before they even begin to erupt!
Other Causes of Treatment
We may also remove a severely infected teeth that threaten to spread infection to other teeth to the jawbone itself. We could take out those loosened as a result of the advanced stages of gum disease, and remove teeth to damaged to be restored with crowns. If you have serious misalignment, often taking a tooth out makes room to reposition the others.
Tooth Replacement
While wisdom teeth don’t need replacement, other scenarios could leave an exposed gap in the smile. To correct this, we may replace the missing tooth with a strong and lifelike replacement option. Dental implants not only look great, but last decades! In addition, we can use them to secure bridges and fixed dentures that never slip, and last much longer than traditional ones. If you have any questions about oral surgery, or about replacing missing teeth, then contact our team today.
Do You Have Questions About Restorative Dental Care?
Often, removing your tooth is the best way to correct esthetic concerns and prevent oral health serious complications. To learn more about how we return smiles to better health and function, then schedule your consultation by calling Family First Dental in Overland Park, KS, today at 913-381-2600.