About Tooth Extractions
Dental extraction most people know as pulling a tooth is the complete removal of the tooth from the socket in the jaw bone. There are two basic types of extraction:
Simple Tooth Extraction
The dentist is able to remove the tooth in a single piece- that is the whole tooth, the coronal part and all of the roots. This is by far the most common extraction procedure.
Surgical Tooth Extraction
If the tooth to be removed hasn’t come fully through the gum /bone (i.e. impacted), severely broken off or decayed, especially below the gum line. The procedure involves reflecting your gum (raising a flap) to expose the bone that is holding in your tooth or root, the roots of the tooth need to be separated by cutting in between them with a bur. This facilitates to remove each individually and creates much less damage to surrounding structures like gums and bone. Most of the time it will require stitches to allow proper healing and minimize possibility of infection. You may need to come back to the office within 7 to 10 days to have these stitches removed unless they are resorbable. Taking out stitches is a simple and painless procedure and takes only a few seconds to do.
It is very important to have a discussion regarding future tooth replacement option prior the extraction, unless it is the last tooth in the arch. A great care should be taken during the extraction to preserve as much bone as possible if restorative choice is an implant. One of the most important requirements to deliver an implant is adequate amount of bone. After the extraction we can expect approximately 20% of existing bone to be lost in a process of healing. Often a bone augmentation procedure is combined with tooth extraction. If restorative choice is a bridge it is less important how much bone will be preserved.
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Feel free to contact us at (215) 557-0660.