Tooth Extractions – Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Maintaining Health Smiles for a Lifetime
While removing a tooth may seem like a negative thing for your smile, there are some situations where removing a tooth will dramatically improve your oral health. At Ponte Vedra Complete Dentistry, we are happy to offer a wide range of treatment options, including simple tooth pulling and complex multi-tooth extraction. If you need to learn more about tooth removal, call our dental office in Ponte Vedra Beach to schedule a consultation appointment with us today.
Indications for Tooth Extraction
We may recommend tooth removal in a number of situations, including:
- Severe tooth decay or damage that cannot be repaired.
- Baby teeth that don’t fall out on their own.
- Preparation for orthodontic treatment due to crowding.
- Prior to creating and placing a partial or full denture.
- Third molars (wisdom teeth) may need to be removed due to crowding, impaction, or other concerns.
Wisdom Tooth extraction
Wisdom teeth are the most commonly extracted. Their late eruption into the smile line means that there is often inadequate space within your smile to accommodate this fourth set of molars. This can lead to impaction (inability of the tooth to erupt), crowding, and shifting teeth out of alignment.
Multiple Tooth Extractions
If you’ve experienced a wide range of oral health concerns or facial trauma, you may need to have multiple teeth removed. In order to provide these treatments quickly and comfortably, we’ll use dental sedation to complete as many extractions as possible in one visit. This can help to alleviate pain right away, save you time, and avoid unnecessary stress and discomfort.
Extraction Site Preservation
Extraction site socket preservation may be recommended to prevent the loss of supportive structure, avoid dry socket, and speed healing after tooth removal. This process is especially important if you plan to replace one or more teeth with dental implant supported restorations. Socket preservation will ensure there is adequate supportive structure available when you’re ready for dental implant placement.
Post-Operative Care
Following the removal of one or more teeth, we will carefully walk you through our post-operative instructions. Every case is different, but you should keep the following basics in mind:
- Control bleeding using gauze over the extraction site and switch out the gauze as it becomes saturated.
- Take over the counter or prescription pain relievers as directed to manage your pain level and call our team right away if you notice pain increasing after the first two days.
- Use ice packs for 20 minutes at a time to relieve discomfort, slow bleeding, and reduce swelling and inflammation.
- Stick to liquids for the first two days. Then, gradually introduce more difficult to chew foods as you feel comfortable.
- Continue to brush and floss your healthy remaining teeth but take special care to avoid irritating the tooth extraction site.