Extracting Teeth That Can’t Be Restored

The ultimate goal of restorative dental treatment is to reestablish your good oral health and proper bite function when one or more issues affect your teeth. Most often, that means crafting an appropriate restoration, such as a dental crown, and restoring your tooth. However, in some cases, restoring a tooth isn’t possible, and the best way to preserve the rest of your oral health is to extract it. While this may be a simple process in many cases, it may sometimes require oral surgery due to complications with the tooth’s structure and/or position.

Simple and Surgical Tooth Extraction

Before recommending tooth extraction, we’ll thoroughly examine your tooth and oral health to determine if it can be saved. In most cases, preserving your healthy, natural tooth structure is the best option for your long-term oral health. If this isn’t possible, then we’ll consult with you about the need and benefits of tooth extraction, and whether or not you require oral surgery to complete it. Common reasons for requiring tooth extraction include:

  • Removing a damaged tooth that can harm surrounding oral tissues
  • Removing the risk of an extensive tooth infection spreading
  • Allowing for a lifelike tooth replacement (such as a dental implant)
  • Removing an impacted wisdom tooth and the intense discomfort it causes
  • And more

Surgically Extracting Wisdom Teeth

In addition to severely compromised teeth, wisdom teeth (or third molars) are among the most commonly extracted teeth. Third molars are the last of your permanent teeth to develop, and they typically begin to grow between the ages of 17-25. For some people, wisdom teeth can become impacted due to insufficient space at the end of their dental ridges. Impacted wisdom teeth will continue to grow and push against whatever is obstructing them, such as the second molar and/or the surrounding jawbone structure. If necessary, we may suggest surgically removing impacted wisdom teeth with the help of a trusted oral health specialist.

Find Out if Tooth Extraction Is Necessary

If a tooth is impacted or too compromised to save, then we can recommend extracting and replacing it (if necessary) to restore your good oral health. To find out if your tooth needs extraction, schedule an appointment with us by calling MMC Dental in Houston, TX, today at 713-926-8896.