ORAL SURGERY

Extractions

Teeth are not actually pulled. They are loosened gently and eased out. The most common reasons for tooth extraction are: irreparable tooth decay, cracked or broken tooth, reinfected root canal and advanced gum disease.

Leaving a diseased tooth in place can lead to the spread of disease to other teeth, bone, and other anatomical structures such as your nerves, sinuses and brain. Dental infections lead to hundreds of thousands of emergency visits each year and occasionally death.

Ridge Preservation (socket augmentation): When a tooth is extracted, ridge preservation is recommended to help preserve a normal bone level. After the removal of a tooth, the resulting bone loss causes a shape defect that can complicate the later placement of a dental implant. Ridge preservation means augmenting the extraction socket with bone particles at the time of extraction. Grafting of bone at a later time after healing is expensive, more invasive, and may delay treatment with implants.

Crown Lengthening: To restore a broken or decayed tooth with a crown, a certain length of sound tooth is needed to hold the crown in place. When the length is not present, a tooth can be lengthened by simply lowering the height of the bone around the tooth. This is a non painful surgical procedure done under local anesthetic.

Alveoplasty: A surgical procedure to reshape the bone under your gums where teeth are missing is called alveoplasty. It is usually done to make dentures fit better or more comfortably. It is often done in conjunction with extractions to remove sharp or bulky areas of bone.