Do you have severe tooth pain? You may need an extraction. Dental extractions can help prevent the spread of infection and remove impacted teeth. Tooth extraction is a general dental service in Sahuarita, AZ, to prevent infection and tooth damage.
Dr. Jordan Morris can also provide restorations after extracting permanent teeth. Learn about the different types of dental extractions and what happens after extraction treatment.
Why Do I Need a Tooth Pulled?
Multiple reasons for a tooth extraction in our Sahuarita, AZ office may include:
- Infected Tooth: Before extraction, we recommend draining an abscess, root canal therapy, or filling cavities. However, if infection is so extensive that it causes severe pain and damage, we must remove it.
- Impacted Tooth: If a tooth does not have enough room to grow, it becomes impacted. Wisdom teeth commonly become impacted because they grow in the back of the mouth. Removing these teeth prevents infection and injury to other teeth.
- Damaged Tooth: Sometimes we recommend removing severely cracked, fractured, or otherwise damaged teeth. Removing damaged teeth can prevent damage to other teeth, tooth pain, and infection.
- Overcrowding: We may remove one or more teeth if you experience overcrowding. Then, we will recommend orthodontic treamtent to straighten your teeth.
All in all, removing problem teeth can prevent problems like tooth damage, the spread of infection, and other serious dental issues.
Are tooth extractions painful?
Many patients fear treatments like tooth extractions because they think they’ll have painful treatment. However, anesthetic and sedation ensure you do not feel pain during treatment. After treatment, taking pain medication as prescribed and using a cold compress will reduce pain.
Properly caring for your teeth and gums after your extraction will ensure you no longer feel pain from problem teeth. Extractions can relieve pain from problems like tooth infections.
Tooth Extraction Treatment in Sahuarita, AZ
We can perform simple or complex tooth extractions. Simple extractions typically require anesthetic to remove a tooth above the gum line. This will numb the tooth so you will not feel pain during treatment. When we remove a tooth above the gum line, we will gently rock the tooth back and forth. This treatment can take just minutes.
Complex extractions remove teeth at or below the gum line. We will recommend dental sedation to ensure your comfort during this lengthy treatment.
Depending on the location of your teeth, a complex extraction can take hours to complete. Teeth below the gum line often take longer.
Why Should You Remove Wisdom Teeth?
Some patients will require wisdom tooth removal if their teeth aren’t emerging properly. Wisdom teeth are the last permanent teeth to emerge, typically when patients are in their teens or twenties.
Also known as the third molars, wisdom teeth erupt behind the back molars. However, wisdom teeth can easily become impacted, meaning they cannot grow properly. As a result, wisdom teeth can dig into other teeth and cause overcrowding.
Please let us know if you feel your wisdom teeth emerge behind your molars. Even if you do not feel pain from your wisdom teeth, we will take dental X-rays and schedule an extraction if needed.
Tooth Extractions Post-Op
After your procedure, we will place gauze on the extraction sites to promote healing. Gently bite down on the gauze, and replace the gauze every thirty minutes until you stop bleeding.
You will begin to notice blood clots forming at the extraction sites. These clots protect the tissue and nerves.
Contact us if you dislodge the blood clots, as you can develop dry socket. Dry socket is a painful condition caused by nerve exposure. The best treatments for dry socket are pain medication, antibiotics, and cold packs.
In addition to protecting the extraction sites, we recommend that you follow these instructions:
- Eat Soft Foods: Sticking to a soft diet for multiple days after the extraction and keeping gauze at the site until bleeding dies down will ensure the sites heal properly. Hard and crunchy foods can irritate your tissues. Instead, we recommend pasta, mashed potatoes, pudding, and other soft foods. Avoid drinking through straws, because this can cause dry socket.
- Treat Discomfort: Once the anesthetic wears off, you can begin to feel sore. We will prescribe pain medication as needed and recommend ice packs to treat swelling.
- Continue to Clean Your Mouth: You may gently brush and floss around the extraction sites. Rinsing leftover food out of the extraction sites will prevent infection. Saltwater rinses also help heal your tooth sockets. However, do not rinse the first 24 hours after treatment. Rinsing can dislodge blood clots from your mouth.
- Avoid Smoking: Nicotine inhibits healing because it restricts the blood vessels. Do not smoke, vape, or use other tobacco products as you heal.
Tooth Extraction Healing Timeline
First, directly after treatment, you will experience bleeding at the extraction sites. Biting down on gauze will help stave off bleeding. You will also take pain medication and use cold compresses for swelling.
Within several days, your gums will close over the extraction sites. You can use a pipette to rinse food from the empty tooth socket. Gently brush and floss.
You should resume normal activities within about 5 days. However, we still recommend avoiding straws and smoking.
Finally, after 1 to 2 weeks, you will fully heal from your tooth extraction.
Restoring Extracted Teeth
If we remove permanent teeth that require replacement, we can also provide dental implants after the extraction site heals. Dental implants can replace single missing teeth or all teeth in your mouth. Securing single dental crowns, bridges, or dentures with implants ensures restorations last.
If you have one missing tooth, we will recommend a dental crown, or cap. A bridge restores multiple missing teeth in a row. Our office also offers partial and complete dentures to replace rows and arches of missing teeth.
Call Our Dental Office
Do you have impacted wisdom teeth? Are you feeling pain from a tooth abscess or infection? Get a comfortable tooth extraction in Sahuarita, AZ, today. We serve dental patients in Tucson and the surrounding areas.
Contact Dr. Morris for a dental consultation and treatment today at 520.412.9162. You can also schedule a dental appointment on our website. If you have questions about tooth extraction treatment, let us know at your next visit.