Surgery

Tooth extraction is the most common surgical dental procedure. There are numerous reasons and medical necessities to extract a tooth.

• Deciduous teeth (or baby teeth) should normally remain in their place until the permanent teeth appear. However, a large decay or an accident may make an early extraction necessary. Sometimes orthodontists suggest an extraction in order to create more favorable conditions for the growing permanent teeth.
• Permanent teeth are less simple to remove. The jaw bone is harder, the roots are longer and the molars are attached to the jaw bone with multiple roots. Some of the possible causes that can lead to an extraction:
  • extensive decay
  • inflammation of the supporting tissues of the tooth (periodontitis)
  • inflammation of the tooth pulp
  • a cyst has developed on the root of the tooth
  • the tooth broke badly
• Wisdom teeth can be quite difficult to remove. Their irregular position in the jaw as well as their crooked roots often call for a surgical extraction (osteotomy). This process involves an incision in the gum and the removal of the overlying bone tissue. The impacted the tooth may be split into multiple pieces to facilitate its removal.

Whenever the infection of a tooth has traveled beyond the root tip (the apex) into the bone, and not even a repeated root canal treatment is expected to solve the problem, an apicectomy might be performed to avoid an extraction and thus save the tooth. During this procedure the overlaying gum and bone are cut and lifted to gain access to the root. Its tip is then removed along with the infected tissue and the gum is eventually stitched back into place.

An oral cyst is an abnormal growth containing a liquid substance. In the jaw they most often occur on the root tips and are most often benign. As long as they are small they are not felt by the patient. Cysts grow slowly but continuously. Because of that they crowd against the surrounding teeth and cause the bone structure to weaken which makes it necessary to always treat them. To do that, the bone is opened above the cyst, which is then completely drained and then the wound gets stitched up. The remaining hollow space can be filled with bone graft to promote the formation of new bone.