Though our primary focus is preventive care, the removal of a tooth (an extraction) may sometimes be necessary for the following reasons:
Your wisdom teeth are the four teeth situated right at the back of your mouth. They are the last of your molars to come through and often make an appearance in your late teens or early twenties. By this time, as all your other teeth will have emerged, there may not be enough room for your wisdom teeth to grow through properly. This means they may start to emerge at an angle, get stuck against the tooth in front or only partially erupt. When this happens, they may be prone to infection, which can be painful.
If you are experiencing any problems with your wisdom teeth, we may take an x-ray to check how they are positioned and then decide whether they need to be taken out. If a wisdom tooth looks like it will be difficult to extract, we may refer you to a hospital for the procedure.
If you do need a tooth taking out, you must tell us if you are taking any medication, especially blood thinning drugs.
After a tooth extraction, you should help promote healing by sticking to soft foods and eating on the other side of your mouth, as well as avoiding smoking, drinking alcohol and eating very hot foods. You can keep the area clean by rinsing very gently with warm salty water.
If you start to experience an intense throbbing pain, three to five days after an extraction, you may have a condition called dry socket. This happens when a blood clot fails to form or is dislodged too early. We can treat this complication by placing a medicated dressing in the socket and this should ease the pain.