Nervous About Your Tooth Extraction? What to Know

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Tooth extraction is a thing that happens when a tooth becomes so damaged or infected that it can’t be saved. A tooth extraction can sound scary to a patient, but knowing what’s coming and how your dentist in Athens, TX will handle the procedure can help. Before you get a tooth extraction, here’s what you need to know.

Before the Procedure

Your dentist will examine you before conducting the extraction to ensure that an extraction is the right course of treatment for you. Next, the dentist will discuss sedation dentistry options. Sedation dentistry is the use of sedation during dental procedures to ensure that the patient is comfortable. Sedation dentistry can relieve dental discomfort.

Procedure

During the dental procedure, the dentist will numb the area to ensure that you can’t feel pain. Then, they’ll use a dental tool to loosen your tooth and remove it from the socket. Finally, the dentist will disinfect the socket where the tooth used to be, and they may put in stitches to promote healing.

What to Expect After the Extraction

Once the extraction takes place, the dentist will put gauze in your socket and ask you to bite down. The gauze needs to stay in place until the bleeding has slowed. Your dentist will give you instructions for managing the bleeding and pain. Your dentist may recommend over-the-counter pain medication. Follow your dentist’s specific instructions.

How to Fill the Gap

Once you’ve had an extraction, your dentist may talk to you about options for filling the gap in your teeth, including dental implants and bridges. Do you need a tooth extraction in Athens, TX? The professionals at Athens Smiles can help. Call today.

How to Prepare for a Tooth Extraction

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People requiretooth extractions in Athena TX for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common ones include removing a wisdom tooth, preparing for orthodontic treatment, and removing a tooth with extensive damage or decay.

What to Expect Before You Have Your Tooth Extracted

Before Dr. Briggs, Dr. Florence, or Dr. Rojas decide to remove a tooth, they will meet with you to go over your medical history and take several X-rays. Be sure to bring a list of all the medications you take to this appointment, including vitamins and over-the-counter pain relievers. The reason this is important is that the medications you take could affect how the anesthesia you receive before having your tooth removed affects you.

The Day Before Your Oral Surgery

You need to abstain from all foods and beverages for about eight hours before your procedure, but your dentist will let you know the exact timeframe. You should continue to take your medications with a small sip of water unless your dentist advises you to wait until after the tooth extraction. If you have a weakened immune system or have recently been sick, you will need to take an antibiotic pill several hours before your surgery.

Your Tooth Extraction Appointment

When you arrive for your appointment, you will receive anesthesia to block the pain receptors in your teeth and gums. Your dentist then removes the tooth with a piece of equipment called a dental elevator. Once the tooth is out, you need to bite down on a gauze pad and replace it with a clean one when it becomes soaked with blood. Plan to take pain relievers and consume a soft foods diet for a few days as you recover from the procedure.

Please contact us with questions or if you feel that you requiretooth extractions in Athens TX.

What to Expect When You Need a Tooth Extracted

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Although our dentists try to avoid tooth extractions in Athens, TX, it is sometimes the next course of action when more conservative efforts to save the tooth fail. Severe tooth decay, infection, and the need to make more room for orthodontic treatment are the most common reasons why adult or pediatric patients need a tooth extracted. This blog lets you know what to expect if one of our dentists has recommended that you or your child have a tooth removed.

Preparing for Tooth Extraction

You will need to complete a consultation at Athens Smiles before scheduling an appointment for tooth extraction. The consultation consists of your dentist taking an X-ray of the tooth to be removed. You should bring a list of all the medications, vitamins, and supplements that you take to the appointment and be prepared to discuss your medical history.

Some conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, need to be stable before you proceed with the tooth extraction. You may need to take antibiotics before the procedure if you have a weakened immune system or certain medical conditions.

The Tooth Extraction Procedure

Your dentist will perform either a simple or surgical extraction after determining whether your tooth is impacted or visible. Simple extraction requires only local anesthetic that numbs the area surrounding your tooth. Although you will feel some pressure, you shouldn’t feel any pain. Your dentist will use an instrument called an elevator to loosen the tooth from its socket and then remove it with forceps.

If you need surgical extraction, you will receive intravenous and local anesthesia with the potential for general anesthesia. Your dentist will make an incision in your gums large enough to remove bone surrounding the tooth to make extraction easier.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have additional questions about tooth extractions in Athens, TX or would like to request a consultation.

Why You Don’t Have to Fear a Tooth Extraction

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If your dentist has recommended that you have a tooth extraction in Athens, TX, your first thought may be smiling with a big gap in your teeth. Even if the tooth extraction is from the rear of your mouth, you may worry about not being able to chew food or having a speech impediment. But tooth extractions don’t mean what they used to mean. You don’t have a dread a future filled with hiding your smile or worrying about what others will think of you. You don’t even have to worry about pain.

Pain Won’t Be an Issue

With modern day tooth extraction, pain isn’t usually an issue. You’ll likely be given a numbing agent in addition to mild sedation if you choose. In most cases, the offending tooth was causing a toothache, so the extraction will actually get rid of the pain that you may have been experiencing, not add to it.

You Don’t Have to Watch

You don’t have to watch your tooth being extracted. You can close your eyes and sit back and relax as it’s being done. If you want, you don’t have to see the tooth once it’s been extracted. Only after the entire treatment is over do you even need to open your eyes.

A Solution Can Happen at the Same Time

When a tooth needs extracted, your dentist in Athens, TX will offer you a few different solutions to choose from. This may be a dental implant, a bridge or something else. In many cases, the solution to your missing tooth can be implemented immediately after the tooth extraction. In other words, you may go home with no gap in between your teeth where the bad tooth was extracted.

With all of the treatment options available today, you don’t have to worry about tooth extractions. If you have a tooth that has gone bad or is giving you trouble, contact us today to find out your options.

Prevailing Myths About Tooth Extractions

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When a tooth has grown to the point that it can likely not be saved, it may have to be extracted. Decay, dental trauma, and severe crowding are all common reasons for tooth extraction. Here is a look at some of the unfortunate myths about getting a tooth extracted patients should know.

Myth: Most dentists prefer to extract a tooth instead of saving it.

Every good dentist is going to go to great lengths to try to save an ailing tooth before deciding that it should be extracted. Removing a tooth permanently affects your smile, and while solutions are available for restoration, natural teeth and natural root systems attached to the bone are always preferred. If the dentist is recommending a tooth is extracted, you can rest assured they have considered:

  • The overall condition of the tooth
  • The probability that the tooth could be saved
  • The way the tooth should be extracted for the greatest chance of restoration

Myth: Extractions are one of the most painful dental procedures.

Extractions can be painful, but you should not feel anything when the procedure is performed. The dentist will use a combination of techniques to make sure you are as comfortable as possible throughout the procedure. You may feel some pressure as the roots of the tooth are removed from the bone, but there should be no pain experienced. After the procedure, anesthetic given during the procedure will gradually wear off. At this point, you may feel a bit of discomfort, but it is usually nothing that over-the-counter pain medications can’t normally relieve.

Myth: Most people have problems after a tooth is extracted.

On the contrary, the majority of tooth extractions are performed without any problems. Most patients will experience minimal pain and discomfort and see the gum tissue start to heal up and close soon after the procedure. If an issue occurs, it is usually an issue that can be treated relatively easily. For instance, problems with prolonged bleeding can be tended to with temporary packing for the wound done by the dentist.

Talk to an Athens Dentist About Tooth Extraction

If you have a tooth that needs to be extracted, it is important that you don’t wait to seek treatment. Reach out to us at Athens Smiles in Athens, TX to schedule an appointment.