Protecting Your Oral Health
In some situations, oral surgery is the best option for restoring and protecting your oral health. At Taconic Dental Arts, we’ll do everything we can to save your natural tooth before deciding if a surgical procedure is necessary. If we determine that oral surgery is the best option, we’ll ensure that your treatment is both safe and comfortable.
At Taconic Dental Arts, our doctors feature wisdom teeth extractions, tooth extraction site preservation, and bone grafting procedures. Learn more about our surgical options and how we can get your oral health back on track.
Wisdom Teeth
Wisdom teeth are your third and final set of molars. These teeth usually emerge during your late teens or early twenties. Typically, patients will need to have their wisdom teeth removed because their jaws aren’t large enough to accommodate them. If they don’t grow in properly, they can cause infections, swelling, and other teeth to shift out of alignment.
If your wisdom teeth don’t emerge out of the gums properly, they’ll most likely become impacted. Impacted wisdom teeth can cause problems such as overcrowding, infections, or diseased tissue. These potential problems make it necessary to remove impacted wisdom teeth to prevent any further complications.
Problems With Impacted Wisdom Teeth
If your wisdom teeth are causing any of the following problems, you’ll need to have them removed:
- Severe pain
- Trapping food and debris behind them
- Infection or gum disease
- Tooth decay in a partially erupted wisdom tooth
- Damage to a nearby tooth or surrounding bone
Extraction Site Preservation
If you’ve had a tooth extracted, it’s important to consider what will be done with the empty space. Socket preservation involves treating the bone underneath the extraction site. If your tooth is removed and nothing is done to the extraction site, the jawbone will begin to degenerate and change shape while healing, potentially leading to your teeth shifting out of alignment. This can cause bite problems and affect your ability to properly speak and chew.
At Taconic Dental Arts, we can fill the space with a dental implant or a dental bridge. Before your tooth extraction, our Rutland dentists will discuss your options with you and create a customized treatment plan, ensuring you get the dental care you need.
Bone Grafting
Bone grafting is where the jawbone is built up to accommodate a dental implant or other restorative solutions. It’s most commonly used for dental implants or other periodontal procedures. It can include packing the tooth socket with powdered, granular bone graft material (called a socket graft or ridge preservation) at the time of tooth extraction.
Post-Op Oral Surgery Care
The first few days or sometimes weeks after your oral surgery are the most crucial for a successful recovery. Our dental team will provide you with post-op instructions to ensure proper healing and avoid any complications. With the right care, our patients often experience a healthy recovery and can return to their normal activities a few days after surgery.
Third Molar (Wisdom Teeth) Extraction
Extracting wisdom teeth is a short surgical procedure that can be completed in one visit to our Rutland dentist. Dr. Carmack will make a small incision in your gums to access and remove your wisdom teeth all while ensuring your experience is as painless as possible. Our dentist will then apply stitches and gauze to promote healing and provide you with post-operative care instructions to help avoid complications.
Ridge Augmentation
For more severe cases of jawbone deterioration, Dr. Carmack may recommend a ridge augmentation. While this process is similar to bone grafting, ridge augmentation aims to reform and reshape your jawbone following a graft. Ridge augmentation procedures can also help recontour bone affected by degradation due to missing teeth.
Full-Arch Extractions and Rehabilitation
Removing teeth affected by decay or infection is important to your overall health. This also allows enough space to place a natural-looking restoration, typically supported by a dental implant. For severe cases of tooth decay or damage, full-arch extractions and rehabilitation can help. These procedures can rebuild your beautiful and functional smile and restore your oral health.
Frequently Asked Questions
Choose Taconic Dental Arts
Whether you need a tooth extraction or a bone graft, our experienced Rutland team is here to help. We’ll do everything we can to ensure your upcoming treatment is comfortable and you experience a smooth, successful recovery. To learn more about our surgical procedures, contact us at (802) 773-1020 to schedule an appointment or you can fill out our online contact form below. We look forward to hearing from you!