Teeth Extraction
What is dental extraction?
Dental extraction is a dental procedure to take out the tooth/teeth from your mouth. There are two types of dental extraction, simple dental extraction and surgical dental extraction. Simple dental extraction is mostly for visible tooth, and it doesn’t require an incision on your gum and won’t need stitches. You would recover in a few days without much swelling or pain. On the other hand, surgical dental extraction is more complicated, and it is mostly for tooth that is not visible in the mouth, such as some wisdom teeth. Surgical dental extraction often requires making an incision on your gum, and might involve cutting the tooth into smaller portion or cutting some bone tissues surrounding the tooth for easier removal. It also requires stitches for wound closure to have a better healing. At RC Dental Center, we only provide simple dental extraction.
If you need dental extraction, please call us for an appointment.
Why would you need the dental extraction?
We understand you don’t want to lose any of your teeth. However, when a tooth is non-restorable due to severe decay, injuries, or severe infection, it is necessary to have the dental extraction, so an infection source would be eliminated. In some orthodontic cases, dental extraction would be performed to create space for the teeth to have a proper alignment and position in the mouth. Dental extraction is also performed on some kids that have retained primary teeth (baby teeth), the extraction procedure would help their adult teeth grow into the oral cavity.
What to expect on the extraction day?
During a dental extraction, local anesthesia would be injected in the mouth so you won’t feel any pain during the extraction procedure. However, you might still feel the motion when a dentist is moving your tooth for extraction. After the procedure, gauzes would be placed inside your mouth for hemostasis. A post-op instruction would be provided to you in case you won’t remember what the dentist said after the procedure. If you drive to the dental office for dental extraction, don’t worry, you could still drive home without any problem. Antibiotics and/or pain medication might be prescribed depending on your condition. If you are prescribed any medications, take them as directed and on time. Take it easy after the procedure, rest and follow the post-op instructions.
What are the post-op instructions?
1) Continue biting on the gauze for 30-60 minutes following your procedure. If it is soaked up with blood, change to a new clean gauze or tea bag.
2) DO NOT spit, rinse, suck (using a straw), smoke, drink carbonated or alcoholic beverage for at least 24 hours. Passively empty your mouth when needed.
3) Do NOT eat any foods that require chewing while your mouth is numb. The numbness should go away within a few hours.
4) Stay on a soft diet for 24 hours. Avoid spicy, hot or hard food.
5) Pain and swelling after tooth extraction is normal. To reduce swelling, you could place an ice bag with cloth to your face alternatively 20 minutes on and off for the first 24 hours. Sometimes, swelling becomes worse on day 2 - day 3, if it happens, switch to hot compress.
6) You may start rinsing your mouth with warm salt water the next day but let the fluid passively empty.
7) Follow the instructions to take your pain medication an/or antibiotics on time.
8) If you develop any fever, nausea, vomiting, ongoing or severe pain, swelling, bleeding or pain that gets worse with time, please give us a call.