As a treatment of last resort, a tooth extraction is something you should try to avoid. You’re better off keeping your natural teeth if possible. With that said, there are cases where your tooth’s removal could be vital for your health. It’s best to know about them to ensure your smile’s safety, so your Little Rock dentist is here to lay them out. To that end, here are four potential reasons you could need a tooth extraction.
Tooth Infection(s)
Root canals can often save infected teeth, but that isn’t always the case. Sometimes, the best (or only) way to treat a tooth infection is to remove the affected tooth.
Don’t forget that infected teeth are major health threats. If their infections progress far enough, harmful bacteria can infect nearby body parts and cause severe problems. Extracting an unsavable tooth before such things happen would protect your smile. Meanwhile, doing nothing would greatly increase your risk of jawbone loss, a stroke, or even sepsis.
Tooth Trauma
Sadly, not all damaged teeth can be repaired with dental crowns and fillings. Those with irreparable trauma often require an extraction.
Indeed, a tooth can be too damaged to save. A pearly white involved in an accident – a collision, a car crash, etc. – has often lost too much for salvage to work. Instead, such a tooth should be quickly removed and replaced with a suitable prosthetic. It’ll otherwise cause painful and annoying issues for your grin.
Advanced Gum Disease
In some instances, a tooth must be removed even when it’s not damaged or infected. A key example would be if you have an advanced case of gum disease.
When gums become highly infected, they often tend to recede. This process can make otherwise-healthy teeth unstable, as they depend on gum tissue to remain in place. A dentist will often advise an extraction in this scenario to avoid worse health issues. After all, doing so would increase your comfort and help fight your gum disease.
A Crowded Mouth
Last but not least, you may need a tooth extraction if your mouth is overcrowded. The treatment would ensure you avoid orthodontic dilemmas.
Some patients’ mouths simply aren’t big enough for all their teeth. For these “small” smiles, removal work allows every tooth enough room to emerge properly. Going without it would instead cause tooth impactions, crooked grins, and worse. Needless to say, such things aren’t in your oral health’s best interest.
Are you curious about other reasons you may need a tooth extraction? If so, consult your dental provider – they’ll gladly share more details!
About the Practice
Little Rock Dental Care is based in Little Rock, AR, with five locations in the area. Led by a large team of excellent dentists, our practice has been helping smiles for over thirty years! We’ve always pursued top-tier care during that tenure, tailoring our preventive, cosmetic, and restorative services to each patient. You can thus rest assured that we’ll make your grin thrive. For more details or to book a visit, please contact us on our website or by phone at (501)-514-9205.