2021 – Page 3

What is the Best Age to Remove Wisdom Teeth?

Venture Creative on February 19, 2021

Wisdom teeth, otherwise known as third molars, are typically the last teeth to grow. Moreover, the removal of wisdom teeth is one of the most common surgical procedures in the world. But discussing wisdom teeth removal may scare children and young adults since it involves surgery.

Luckily, state-of-the-art technology and modern techniques help make wisdom teeth extractions less painful. Moreover, early removal may help limit the risks of wisdom teeth removal:

The Best Age for Wisdom Teeth Removal

Often wisdom teeth develop in your mouth between ages 17 to 25 years. Therefore, an NH study suggests that wisdom teeth should be removed between the ages of 15 to 25 while the latter shows the lowest morbidity levels. The favorable reasons root form, softer and pliable bone, rapid healing, and greater distance to the inferior alveolar nerve.

However, keep in mind that different people boast different teeth. Thus, it’s critical an expert dentist monitors the growth of your wisdom teeth and pinpoints the right time for extraction.

Why You Should Avoid Putting Off Wisdom Teeth Removal

Avoiding wisdom teeth removal surgery may lead to further complications like:

1. Impacted Wisdom Teeth

The third molar may become impacted if it lacks sufficient room for growing and developing. Ultimately, it may result in discomfort, excessive pain, and even damage to neighboring teeth.

2. Tooth Decay

Typically it’s harder for you to reach your wisdom teeth with a toothbrush. It means that these are more susceptible to developing gum diseases and tooth decay.

3. Infection

Since wisdom teeth attack your mouth by developing through the gums, it provides bacteria the optimum environment to grow. Thus, you may end up with painful infections.

4. Tumors and Cysts

Your wisdom teeth may be severely impacted to the point where tumors/cysts may start forming around the third molars. Unfortunately, it typically results in damage to other teeth, as well as your jawbone.

Why Get Wisdom Teeth Removal?

If a wisdom tooth starts growing in your mouth, there are two things you can do; remove it or don’t remove it. In case your wisdom teeth cause you to experience pain, an infection, crowding other teeth, or are impacted, it’s critical to get an extraction.

Your dentist will recommend x-rays of your teeth and jaw to predict growth patterns and, ultimately, curate a plan to remove the wisdom teeth.

The Bottom Line

Failure to get wisdom teeth removal surgery at the right time may result in complications like tooth infection, gum diseases and excruciating pain. Therefore, it is important to schedule an appointment instantly.

Ensure a smooth wisdom teeth removal with no discomfort by booking an appointment here at Oral and Facial Surgery Institute. Our experts ensure you know all the risks and benefits of undergoing wisdom teeth removal.

How to Heal Quickly After Wisdom Tooth Surgery

Venture Creative on February 12, 2021

In-depth research shows that about five million Americans undergo wisdom teeth removal per year. In addition to this, dentists and oral surgeons extract about 10 million wisdom teeth in a year.

Moreover, wisdom teeth may take two weeks to recover fully. During this period, you must know how to look after the wound appropriately. In fact, taking care of your teeth and gums appropriately can help speed up the recovery period. Here we discuss ways you can achieve that:

How Long Does a Wisdom Teeth Recovery Take?

There’s a slight chance you may require stitches to help appropriately close the wound. Here you’ll have to wait a week before you can get the stitches off. In some cases, the surgery results in swelling, pain, and bruising, which requires additional time to heal.

Generally, wisdom teeth recovery occurs slowly yet gradually. Here we discuss the healing process in several steps:

Blood clots form within the first 24 hours
Swelling of the mouth and cheeks typically improves after 2 to 3 days.
Your dentist will remove stitches after seven days.
Jaw stiffness and soreness should disappear within 7 to 10 days.
Mild bruising occurring on your face should diminish after two weeks.

Keep in mind that the recovery time varies for different people. In case your blood clots dislodge from the wound or an infection occurs, your wound may take longer to heal.

How to Speed Up Recovery Process

The below-mentioned tips can lead to a speedy recovery after wisdom tooth removal:

Follow a Strict Diet

To ensure you don’t irritate your wound or cause an infection, avoid consuming hot foods and beverages for the initial three hours to ensure the anesthetic effects wear naturally.

Your tooth sockets require at least two weeks to heal, whereas you may have to wait a while before the stitches settle in properly. For this reason, experts recommend you stick to consuming soft food items and liquids.

Rinse Your Mouth with Salt Water

Don’t rinse your mouth in the first 24 hours after your wisdom teeth surgery. However, you may start rinsing your mouth with a warm salt solution in the following week. It removes food particles and also kills bacteria, but it also acts as a natural painkiller.

Ice the Wound

One great way to gain relief from wisdom tooth surgery pain is by icing your jaw. That way, you can reduce the bruising and swelling you may be experiencing.

Start by placing an ice pack atop the extraction area for at least 15 to 20 minutes. After that, remove the ice pack and let your face cool down for about 20 minutes. Then repeat the process.

You may continue doing this process multiple times for the 36 to 48 hours following your removal.

The Takeaway

After appropriate aftercare, it takes a mere two weeks for you to recover from wisdom teeth removal. In case you develop an infection, you may need to take antibiotics.

Moreover, you must schedule a follow-up appointment with your oral surgeon to ensure your wisdom teeth are healing appropriately. Book an appointment here in Southern Utah with our expert oral surgeon Dr.Davis to ensure your wound doesn’t get an infection and your recovery process goes smoothly.

How to Help Denture Mouth Sores

Venture Creative on January 30, 2021

Getting dentures comes with a fair amount of discomfort and gum pain. Especially in the first few weeks after wearing dentures, you may have to deal with sore and sensitive gums until your mouth adjusts. On top of that, you may experience additional pain as your bone structure, and gums grow over time.

Besides this, if you’re experiencing denture pain, you can easily spot the symptoms. It includes red patches on the skin just below the denture or the development of white yeast patches. In certain cases, the gums may appear to spread over the denture resulting in pain in the red tissues. Here we’ve rounded up a couple of ways you can relieve denture pain:

Your denture sore may cause discomfort and irritation in your mouth. Here are some measures you can take to restrict the development of denture sores:

Practice Proper Denture Hygiene

Taking care of your denture may sound like a chore, but in-depth cleaning and proper denture care can help avoid extreme denture discomforts.

For starters, thoroughly clean your dentures with a dental cleanser and remove any food particles from your mouth. That way, you can keep denture pain caused by bacteria, yeast, or thrush at bay.

Moreover, be sure to immerse your dentures in lukewarm water before crawling into bed at night. It helps loosen particles that may be stuck to your dentures resulting in easy removal when brushing the next morning.

Avoid Sticky Foods and Enjoy Soft Ones

In order to avoid denture mouth sores, as well as get used to chewing with dentures, patients should opt for soft foods. It comprises dishes like soup, porridge, pudding, seedless grapes, berries, and so on.

Your main goal should be ensuring your mouth is always moist. It is because the lubricating saliva helps reduce denture friction, thus preventing gum irritation. In case you consume foods or liquids, like coffee, that reduce saliva production, make sure you follow it by taking copious amounts of non-diuretic fluids.

In addition to this, avoid seeded bread, sticky food, hot and spicy food, and particularly hard food that requires extra force to bite down. It may lead to sore spots below your dentures or discomfort.

Utilize a Denture Adhesive

A high-quality denture adhesive can help restrict gum pain by preventing the existence of food particles between your dentures and gums.

Besides that, denture adhesive ensures your dentures remain in their designated place and don’t irritate your gums.

Home Remedies to Help Prevent Sore Gums

Apart from the prevention steps mentioned above, you may try the easy-to-follow home remedies added below:

Contact your oral surgeon to ask whether you can use a topical anesthetic or not. They may recommend one consisting of benzocaine lower pain levels.
Regularly rinse your mouth with salty water.
Take over-the-counter pain relief medication to relieve pain, inflammation, and discomfort as per your oral surgeon’s recommendation.
Be sure to remove your dentures for around six hours each day to relax your gums.
Soaking your dentures in water helps remove food particles stuck on the dentures.

Still not sure how you can relieve pain by sore gums? Then contact our professional oral surgeon, Dr. Davis, by scheduling an appointment at our website.

“How to Stop Bleeding After Getting a Tooth Pulled”

Venture Creative on January 22, 2021

With advancements in every sector, tooth extraction has become a lot easier than it was in the early times. Usage of sedatives and medicines has made the entire process less painful. The first 24 hours are regular if some of the areas bleed, but excessive bleeding becomes scary and, at times, very painful. Patients start panicking when they see the amount of blood getting mixed with saliva in their mouths.

There are many ways to avoid excessive bleeding. Let’s discuss some of the most effective ways to stop excessive bleeding after the tooth has been pulled out.

Wet Gauze

Biting a wet gauze is one of the most effective ways of stopping bleeding. Oral and Facial institutes suggest patients apply this technique to avoid excessive bleeding after tooth extraction. Take a small piece of wet gauze and fold it into tiny pieces. Place this piece in the empty socket and start biting it for almost an hour. The pressure applied to the empty socket will eventually help in reducing the amount of blood oozing out.

Keep your head on raised pillows

After surgery or extraction, many oral surgeons, including Dr. Shawn B. Davis, advise their patients to lie down with their heads raised. Oral surgeons suggest this particular position because when your head is in the higher position, the blood pressure reduces, which in the tum slows down the bleeding. All you need to do is pile up two or three pillows and rest your head on the pillows.

Black tea bags

Keeping a wet tea bag in the empty socket helps in speeding the blood clotting. Make sure you use a wet tea bag because a dry one would be of no use.

Resting and taking a break:

Dr. Davis also advises to rest or take a break after the tooth extraction. It is because it helps the body prepare it for the other tiring and stressful tasks that are to come in the upcoming days. Putting your body through intensive tasks right after your tooth has been pulled out will increase the bleeding and affect your body’s performance. Dental surgeons advise avoiding any strenuous activity for some days till your inflamed area becomes normal.

Take care while eating

Make sure to avoid eating any hard solids that could affect the extraction. The effect of sedation starts going away after a few hours of the surgery. Start with a soft diet, juices, or even ice cream to help reduce the swelling and relax the inflamed area. Avoid the use of straws as it can cause excessive bleeding. Eat meals that do not require chewing. Your menu can include milkshakes, soups, or smoothies as they are filling and healthy.

These are some of the ways that you could bring in use while staying at home. However, if the situation doesn’t stay normal, you must see an oral surgeon for consultation.

Do Wisdom Teeth Really Need to be Removed

Venture Creative on January 15, 2021

Wisdom teeth grow at the back of your gums and are the last teeth to develop. As long as your wisdom teeth are healthy, you don’t have anything to worry about. However, your wisdom tooth may not have adequate space to grow, which leads to complications.

Not to mention, watching your friends and family members come back with swollen mouths and strict diet plans is sure to leave you skeptical. Chances are, you don’t want to undergo surgery. Here we discuss issues your growing wisdom tooth may cause, as well as how you can get rid of the pain:

What Can Wisdom Teeth Lead to?

More often than not, people’s mouths are too small to allow sufficient growth of wisdom teeth. Thus, it may lead to:

If your mouth doesn’t have enough space to accommodate your wisdom teeth, they may end up crowding or damaging the teeth around it. It may lead to misaligned biting.
In case your wisdom teeth are unable to develop properly, the edges may start trapping food and bacteria around them.
There’s a slight chance your wisdom teeth may be unable to emerge appropriately. Here the teeth end up getting trapped within your jaw. In turn, you may have to deal with painful infections or cysts that damage bone support.
The lack of proper growth causes food to stick between adjacent teeth. Thus, increasing the risks of tooth decay.
The tissues present around your wisdom tooth may start swelling. Moreover, it becomes hard to clean.
Complications with your wisdom teeth may lead to further issues with pressure, sinuses, and congestion.
There’s also the risk of developing gum diseases like gingivitis or periodontal disease.
Misalignment and crowded teeth may make it vital for you to get treatment to straighten your teeth.

How Do Oral Surgeons Remove a Wisdom Tooth?

It’s not always clear whether you require the removal of the wisdom teeth or not. In fact, antiseptic mouthwash or antibiotics can treat a majority of the above-mentioned conditions. In case none of these prove helpful, reach out to your oral surgeon, and schedule an appointment.

Before your doctor starts performing surgery, they’ll explain the procedure in its entirety to ensure you fully consent to it.

Next, you’ll receive a local anesthetic to numb the area surrounding the wisdom tooth. You may experience a certain amount of pressure right before the extraction due to the widening of your tooth socket.

In special cases, your doctor has to create a small cut in the gum to ease the removal process. They may also take it out by cutting it into smaller pieces.

Typically, the process lasts between mere seconds to 20 minutes. It may lead to swelling or slight pain inside, as well as outside your mouth. Moreover, the symptoms last up to two weeks and alleviate over time.

When to See an Oral Surgeon?

More often than not, patients will tell oral surgeons they experience little to no pain to avoid getting the wisdom teeth removed. However, leaving your teeth untreated after a specialist’s recommendation may lead to painful repercussions in the near future.

All in all, deciding whether you should remove your wisdom tooth or not isn’t very easy, especially without consulting a professional. That’s why it’s always best to reach out to your oral surgeon.

Ready to extract your wisdom tooth and accentuate your beautiful smile? Then venture into our website and schedule an appointment today!