Tooth Extraction: How Risky Is It for Your Oral Health?

What Is a Tooth Extraction?

It is a procedure that evacuates a tooth from the jawbone. Tooth extractions are permanent. Therefore, you would need a restorative dental procedure to replace the missing tooth.

Which Conditions Necessitate a Tooth Extraction?

You are not wrong to think that dentistry is about preserving oral features, including teeth. General dentists in Braeburn, Houston, TX, prioritize saving natural teeth for your oral health. However, sometimes preserving a damaged tooth poses a greater risk to your oral health than removing it. Some of the conditions that dictate you need a tooth extraction in Braeburn, Houston, TX, are:

1. Advanced periodontitis – usually, gum disease is treatable. However, the advanced stage of gum disease causes permanent damage to your oral features, one of them being tooth loss. Your dentist can recommend extracting your teeth if you have advanced gum disease.
2. Severe tooth decay – tooth decay is probably the most common cause of tooth extractions in dentistry. Dentists may offer several solutions to restore a decayed tooth, but sometimes a tooth extraction is the best treatment.
3. Impacted tooth – when a tooth erupts improperly, it can remain fully or partially stuck underneath the gums. Such teeth require surgical tooth extraction to avoid other oral complications.
4. Deep tooth fractures – a dental-related injury can severely break or crack your tooth. Dentists only recommend tooth extractions if you have a fracture below the gum line or have an advanced fracture damaging most of your external structure.
5. Overcrowding – did you know that an orthodontist can recommend removing a seemingly healthy tooth? Such cases occur when you have more teeth in your mouth than the space available in the jawbone. Removing one or two teeth creates extra space for your remaining teeth to align properly.

Risk Factors Associated with Tooth Extraction

A tooth extraction procedure is invasive. Therefore, we prepare our patients at Blush Dental for potential complications after the treatment. The common risks that happen after tooth extractions are:

1. Bleeding – removing a tooth from the jawbone can cause significant bleeding. Therefore, notify your dentist beforehand if you have blood-related complications or are taking blood thinners.
2. Severe pain – generally, tooth extraction procedures are painful. Therefore, dentists begin treatment with local anesthesia that numbs your mouth. Still, the numbing cannot last forever. Once the numbing wears off, you will experience pain, blistering, and discomfort. While it is common for every tooth extraction, some patients have it worse than others.
3. Delayed healing – typically, it takes about 14 days for an extraction wound to heal. However, some patients can take longer to heal due to weakened immune systems, among other factors.
4. Improper teeth alignment – after removing one or more of your natural teeth, you leave a significant gap in your jawbone. If you do not seek tooth replacement treatments early, your teeth may start shifting. The shift is a natural process to try to fill the existing gap. The consequence will be improper teeth alignment that may necessitate getting braces.
5. Dry socket – also called Osteitis. It is a pain you experience in your extraction wound due to dry air entering your mouth. Many patients suffer from this condition from using straws when drinking fluids.

Can You Avoid Complications After a Tooth Extraction?

How you care for your mouth after an extraction procedure can cause complications or avoid them. Some of the ways you can prevent oral complications linked to tooth extractions are:

1. Take prescribed pain medicine – do not overdose because you desire the pain to stop. Contact your dentist for further treatment if the medicine is not satisfactorily healing your pain.
2. Quit smoking and taking alcohol – they aggravate swelling, heighten the risk of infection, and slow the healing process.
3. Eat healthily – your body needs all nutrients and minerals to remain healthy during recovery. Besides, strengthen your immune system so you can heal quickly.
4. Avoid drinking through straws.
5. Avoid eating hard and crunchy foods. Even non-food items can be abrasive, worsening your pain and slowing your healing.
6. Seek tooth replacement solutions early – do not wait too long before you visit your dentist for tooth replacement.
7. Keep up with proper oral hygiene – a clean mouth will discourage bacterial overgrowth that risks an infection in your extraction wound.

‍