Tooth Extraction – Is It Possible to Avoid It?

Tooth extraction is the kind of dental treatment that many people dread once they’re told they need it, but that really shouldn’t be postponed any longer once it becomes necessary. With the goal of preserving and restoring your smile, your dentist will typically recommend restorative treatment to save your healthy, natural tooth structure, if possible. Extracting a tooth’s entire structure (including its root) is usually a last-resort option, when a tooth is so far compromised that there is no restoration that can save it. Once tooth extraction becomes your smile’s best option, there isn’t really a way to avoid it. However, you can avoid more serious oral health troubles by following your dentist’s recommendation and seeking treatment as soon as possible.

What’s the point of tooth extraction anyway?

To understand the importance of extracting a tooth, you must understand why the procedure is necessary in the first place. As we mentioned, the goal of restoring your smile is to help you preserve a maximum amount of your healthy, natural tooth structure. However, there are several conditions that can leave a natural tooth without enough healthy structure to restore, and complications that can make restoring the tooth impossible due to its spacing and/or position. In any case, extracting the tooth helps us remove any impending threats to your oral health caused by the severely compromised tooth. This may include further damage to other teeth and oral tissues, risks of complex oral health infections, and much more.

What other options do you have for treating it?

The reason why extracting a tooth is necessary is because there are no other options for treating and saving it. This means the only other option is to postpone treatment or neglect it altogether, which will only allow your condition to grow even worse. Depending on the nature of the tooth’s problem, waiting could lead to the tooth falling out on its own, but only after more severe damage has been done to it and your surrounding oral structures. Or, it may simply keep compromising your oral health, such as is the case with an impacted wisdom tooth (third molar) that becomes stuck within your jawbone structure.

Will extracting the tooth fully restore your smile?

In many cases, extracting the tooth that’s causing trouble is only the first step to fully restoring your smile. The immediate threat that the tooth posed is now gone, or at least mitigated, but you now have the issue of an empty space in your dental ridge that needs to be filled. Tooth loss can negatively impact your smile’s appearance, your bite’s function, and your remaining teeth’s health and integrity in several different ways. To complete your smile’s restoration, we may also recommend replacing the extracted tooth as soon as possible, preferably with a restoration that’s supported on a root-like dental implant post.

Learn more about tooth extraction

Tooth extraction can often be avoided if you prevent oral health concerns from developing, or address them as soon as they do. To learn more, schedule an appointment with Dr. Smith and our team by calling Pecan Tree Dental in Grand  Prairie, TX, today at (972) 262-5111.