Extractions

Some common reasons for dental extractions (tooth removal) include removal of wisdom teeth, badly fractured teeth, or to make room for orthodontic treatment.  Extractions are also an alternative to root canal treatment.

Surgical Extraction

A surgical extraction is done when a tooth is not easily accessible because it hasn’t fully broken through or it has broken under the gum line. An incision is made to access the tooth, then the tooth may be broken in to pieces for ease of removal.

Non-surgical Extraction

Non-surgical extraction require dental forceps and an elevator for careful tooth removal.

Post-extraction Healing

Following a tooth extraction, bleeding is common during the first hour. It takes roughly this long for a blood clot to form in the socket. The open wound overlying the dental socket will take roughly a week to heal and the socket will fill in with soft gum tissue over the next one to two months. The final socket closure with bony remodeling can take six months or longer.

Dry-Socket

The loss of the clot from the tooth socket. This must be treated by the dentist to insure proper healing. A "dry-socket" can be very painful and will not heal on its own. The clot is usually pulled out by smoking too soon after an extraction. Therefore it is important to not smoke for 2 days after an extraction.