From time to time, teeth may need to be extracted (pulled out/removed). This may be necessary if there is significant decay, crowding, or severe damage due to trauma or disease. In some cases, baby teeth may need to be extracted if they are not falling out on their own or particular teeth may be extracted for orthodontic purposes.
Dental Extractions
Dental Extractions
These teeth usually appear around the late teenage years but sometimes even later. Today, people often have jaws that are too small for all 32 teeth – most people have room for around 28 teeth. If you already have 28 healthy teeth, there may not be enough room for your wisdom teeth to come through properly and so in certain cases, we may recommend that they be extracted.
Wisdom teeth are typically removed if they are causing repeated infection, pain or discomfort, if they are decayed (these teeth can be difficult to keep clean), if they are stuck in the jaw (impacted) or if they will cause crowding. Problems with wisdom teeth will usually be apparent during a regular exam or with an x-ray but also feel free to speak to a member of our team if you are experiencing any pain or discomfort and we will advise you if the extraction of your wisdom teeth is recommended. For difficult extractions, we will refer you to see an oral surgeon.
Dental Extraction Procedure
We will first numb the area to prevent discomfort. You will feel pressure while you tooth is being removed, but you should not be in any pain. In simple cases, your tooth will be taken out in one piece. However, in cases where the tooth is broken down or impacted (growing in the wrong direction), we may need to widen the hole and reduce the tooth to a number of smaller pieces (surgical).
Following extraction, it is normal to experience some pain, swelling and minor bleeding. You will be advised on how to manage these anticipated conditions. For pain, an over-the-counter ibuprofen pain reliever is normally sufficient to reduce pain and swelling (unless contra-indicated). For bleeding, we will give you some gauze pieces to place on the wound with pressure for 10 minutes. We will ensure that you have stopped bleeding prior to leaving our clinic.
Advice after extractions
• Avoid excessive exercise and strenuous activity for the rest of the day.
• Do not drink anything hot or alcoholic or smoke a cigarette for 24 hours after an extraction. Failure to comply may re-start bleeding.
• Do not rinse your mouth out excessively on the same day as the extraction. Excessive rinsing encourages bleeding.
• You may feel sharp edges in the socket with your tongue and small fragments of bone may work loose, this is normal.
• If you have been given an antibiotic you must finish the course even if the pain and /swelling has disappeared.
Day after extractions and for one week thereafter
• It is very important that you keep your mouth as clean as possible. Rinse out your mouth as often as possible (after every meal if you can) with warm water and salt. This will promote faster and cleaner healing.
• If severe pain starts a day or so after an extraction it probably means that you have a dry socket. This is a very painful condition and affects at random a small proportion of extractions. It means that there will be delayed healing. Dry sockets never last longer than two weeks and are usually healed well inside that time. If your dry socket is very painful, please contact the practice at 091 520222. We can treat it and make it more comfortable.
• If severe pain starts a day or so after an extraction it probably means that you have a dry socket. This is a very painful condition and affects at random a small proportion of extractions. It means that there will be delayed healing. Dry sockets never last longer than two weeks and are usually healed well inside that time. If your dry socket is very painful, please contact the practice at 091 520222. We can treat it and make it more comfortable.
If excessive bleeding occurs
• Use cotton wool or a handkerchief to make a firm pad an inch thick. Place the pad into the bleeding socket from tongue side to cheek side. Bite firmly to compress the pad on the bleeding socket for 15 – 20 mins without disturbing.
• Do not lie down or panic as this will increase the blood supply to the head and make the bleeding more pronounced. It is advisable to keep sitting up.
