Oral Surgery

Oral Surgery

April 9, 2020 8:02 am Published by

Oral surgery essentially comprises any dental surgical procedure. Many oral surgery procedures undertaken in the Dental Centre can be conducted under local anesthesia.

Types of Oral Surgery

There are numerous conditions that may require oral surgery. These include surgical extractions,removal of cysts and tumors,apicoectomy and more.

Difficult-to-extract tooth removal – when the tooth is strongly fixated inside the dental socket. This happens when a bridge of bony or calcified material called cementum builds between the root and the bone and connects the bone to the root (ankylosis).

Broken tooth removal- when the tooth is partially or totally destroyed by decay, leaving behind part of or no crown and/or a root embedded in the gum.Unerupted tooth removal – if the tooth remains embedded inside the gum or becomes impacted.This takes place most commonly due to lack of space in the dental arch, where the constant pressure caused by the attempt to erupt may bring about various problems;such as the destruction of neighboring teeth, inflammation, pain and crowding.

However, there are also situations in which the body produces extra teeth (supernumerary teeth),which do not have space to erupt. If the permanent tooth is positioned abnormally e.g.

transversally in the gum and fails to erupt, the milk tooth may last through adulthood. Later in life, problems may arise requiring surgical interference.

Wisdom tooth removal – wisdom teeth do not necessarily have to be removed. Your dentist can advise wisdom tooth extraction if he/she sees that it could potentially become problematic. This may be due to their poor development,partial eruption and/or impaction. Because it can be difficult to keep wisdom teeth clean, a chronic infection of a wisdom tooth frequently forms around it. Therefore,extraction is often carried out to address the onset of an infection or prevent further decay and the pain that may ensue .

Cyst removal – the removal of a cyst requires surgical intervention. At the origin of some cysts, there may be an unerupted tooth, which has not been removed. In other cases where an infection or cyst is located at the end of the tooth root,an endodontic treatment or re-treatment of the tooth is recommended. If the infection persists, the removal of the cyst will have to be carried out surgically.

Dental implants – this is a procedure to replace teeth,which are lost due to gum disease, infection or accident. Permanent titanium posts are inserted into the jawbone as a base to attach a new artificial tooth (please refer to our Dental Implants fact sheet).

Pre and Post- Operative Care

Depending on the situation, many oral surgery procedures can be conducted under local anesthesia. The same applies to tooth extraction. However, in cases where several teeth need to be removed simultaneously, general anesthesia may be indicated. Once the tooth is removed, stitches may also be required (e.g. wisdom teeth). Each individual case is different. Your dentist will explain what you should expect in your specific case, and advise you on aftercare once the procedure has taken place.

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