Dental extractions are among the easiest and best ways to get relief from a toothache. As the name implies, an extraction involves removing the tooth. If your pulp has died or the tooth has become severely infected, extraction may be your only route to fix this problem. Depending on the tooth, we can do either a simple extraction or a more complicated extraction.
SIMPLE EXTRACTIONS:
These types of extractions, the simple extractions, are the most common in the world of dentistry. During a simple extraction, we will remove the tooth by numbing and loosening the gums around the socket, and will grasp the tooth with forceps and move it gently from side to side until we can get it to break free from the socket and remove it.
The teeth are held to the bone by a thin piece of soft tissue. This soft tissue is known as the periodontal ligament. We use this tissue to remove the tooth. As you may know, the key to removing a tooth by pulling is to rock the tooth from side to side, which enlarges the socket in the bone and breaks the ligament that helps to hold the tooth in place.
Simple extractions, also known as pulling, don’t take long to complete. We will numb you before we start, so you won’t feel anything. Depending on the tooth, pulling it will typically take just a few minutes after you have been numbed with local anesthesia. Once completed, we will place gauze in your mouth to bite on, and you will be free to go.
COMPLEX EXTRACTION:
As we all know, not all teeth can be pulled. Sometimes, the tooth will be so decayed or broken off that the dentist will have nothing to grasp above the gum line. In cases such as this, the dentist will need to perform a more complicated extraction, which involves getting the tooth out below the gum line, as we won’t be able to use the standard method of pulling and rocking.
These extractions involve us making an incision in the gums around the tooth, and raising the flap we cut to expose the bone. Once we have exposed the bone, there may be enough of the tooth exposed to grab and remove it using the pulling method. However, in most cases, the tooth will be embedded in the bone, meaning that we will be unable to pull it out without further issue.
With teeth that are embedded in the bone, we will need to use a drill and chip away at the bone to get to the tooth. This is known as cutting the tooth out, and happens to be very common with impacted teeth or teeth that are severely decayed. Once we’ve cut his way to the tooth and removed it, we will sew back the flap of skin that he cut to get to the tooth. The flap of skin and the socket will heal over time – providing you take care of it.
Dental extractions are very common and happen on a daily basis for dentists. Oral surgeons are the best for extractions, as extractions are all they do. All types of extractions, even the most complex, will take time to heal. As long as you take care of your extraction area, you’ll avoid common pitfalls such as dry sockets and other mishaps. Although they can be painful once the procedure is over – you’ll eventually start to feel a lot better once you have had the troubled tooth or teeth removed.