Our goal is always to help you preserve your natural smile, but in some cases, tooth extraction may be the best option to avoid increasingly-worse dental problems. When a tooth is too damaged or infected, or the tooth’s position poses a threat, then extracting it can save the rest of your oral health and allow us to properly restore your smile.
Can Tooth Extraction Save Your Smile?
Impacted wisdom teeth
Impacted wisdom teeth, or third molars, are the most frequently extracted adult teeth. The last molars to erupt on your dental ridges, wisdom teeth often grow at odd angles due to insufficient room. If they become impacted against the molars already present, then wisdom teeth will push against them, forcing your teeth out of alignment and causing them damage.
Severely infected teeth
If a tooth becomes too infected for root canal treatment to save it, then the infection may spread beyond the tooth and complicate the rest of your oral health. Extracting the infected tooth as soon as possible may be the only way to prevent the spread of infection.
Extensively damaged teeth
Like decaying teeth, damaged teeth can usually be restored unless the condition is too severe. When a tooth’s crown is extensively cracked or broken, or if a tooth’s root has fractured, then a dental crown may not be enough to save it. Extracting the damaged tooth will prevent the tooth from damaging the tissues that support it and affecting the teeth closest to it.
Advanced gum disease
Gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss because it erodes the foundations that support your teeth (i.e., gum tissues and jawbone structure). If advanced gum disease leaves one or more of your teeth without adequate support, then tooth extraction may be necessary for Dr. Okoniewski to restore and rebuild your smile.
Ask Dr. Okoniewski if You Should Extract Your Tooth
Under certain circumstances, tooth extraction can be your smile’s best option at recovering from severe dental damage or disease. To find out if tooth extraction is necessary, call Advanced Dental Concepts in Auburn Hills, MI today at (248) 852-1820.
