Did you know that nearly ¾ of adults have had one of their ‘permanent’ teeth extracted? It’s more common than you may think. Whether you have a tooth that is too damaged to be restored or your wisdom teeth are coming in – you may be facing a tooth extraction. So, what does an extraction involve? Despite what you may think, extraction isn’t as simple as just pulling your tooth – plus, it’s relatively painless. Your dentist uses a local anesthetic to numb the area before performing the extraction – so you shouldn’t feel a thing! So, let’s explore the steps your dentist will take to properly extract that tooth.
Tooth Extraction: What To Expect
When you think of tooth extraction, you may try and relate it to pulling a loose tooth when you were younger. However, this situation is a little different – your tooth isn’t likely to be loose at all. So, how can your dentist remove it?
Well, as previously stated – they’ll start by administering a local anesthetic to numb the area. While you may feel slight pain with the anesthetic at first because it’s administered through a needle, it won’t last long. Although, in some cases, patients don’t feel any pain at all.
After the area around your tooth is numb, your dentist will begin to prepare the tooth for extraction. If it’s above the gum line, the procedure is rather simple. Your tooth will be rocked back and forth until it’s loose from your jawbone and then removed. However, it is different for impacted teeth (stuck between the jawbone and gum line), like wisdom teeth. In order to extract an impacted tooth, your dentist will need to uncover it first, by removing some of the soft tissue that surrounds it.
Although you may be afraid of tooth extraction, try not to worry! Modern dentistry has some incredibly restoration methods that can completely restore your lost tooth.
