When any of your other teeth experience a problem, such as being damaged or forced out of alignment, there’s often a viable solution for addressing the issue and saving the tooth. However, this isn’t always the case with your third molars, or wisdom teeth. When it comes to your wisdom teeth, the most common problem is impaction, meaning the molar doesn’t enough space to erupt from your dental ridge properly. There may not be a way to save the tooth, but fortunately, you can avoid further problems by extracting your wisdom teeth, and removing them won’t negatively impact your oral health or bite function. (more…)
When Waiting to Extract a Tooth Is a Bad Idea
With most oral health treatments, waiting to undergo treatment isn’t a good idea. The nature of most oral health concerns is progressive, and the longer you wait to address them, the more complicated it can become to successfully address them. When your dentist or oral health specialist recommends tooth extraction to address your concern, it often means that your condition is severe, and the tooth cannot be saved by any other means. Today, we examine three reasons why extracting a tooth might be necessary, and how waiting could make each condition worse. (more…)
When Correcting Your Jawbone Requires Surgery
The realm of oral surgery isn’t somewhere everyone needs to go in the course of their oral health care. Surgical treatments are typically reserved for extreme and/or complex oral health conditions that can’t be addressed with general dental care and restorative measures. When surgery with an expert is recommended, it’s typically to address a specific concern that may require highly involved, precise surgical correction. For example, in the case of jawbone surgery, your treatment may be designed to recover from a traumatic injury, correct a congenital malformation, fortify a weakened part of its structure, or more. (more…)
Factors that Could Contribute to You Losing Teeth
Tooth loss isn’t always as clear-cut as it seems, and many people who experience it may have been able to prevent it if they addressed their specific risk factors sooner. The problem with losing a tooth is that it won’t grow back, and replacing it can only go so far in helping you regain your bite’s full function. Fortunately, it’s easier today than ever for people to understand what specific factors could contribute to their tooth loss in the future. They also have many options for addressing them in order to save and preserve their healthy, natural smiles. (more…)
Do You Need to Prepare for Dental Implants?
Losing teeth isn’t as big of a problem these days as it used to be in the past. Not only are more people able to avoid tooth loss thanks to more advanced dental care, but recovering from tooth loss is also much more successful. This is largely thanks to the advent of dental implants, which are designed to replace your lost teeth roots and support your restoration in a similar manner. This ability gives dental implants a number of advantages when it comes to restoring your smile, and their biocompatibility makes them a good option for patients who experience to any degree. (more…)
Why Are Wisdom Teeth a Problem for Many People?
Most of the concerns that your smile might face can either develop as a result of inadequate hygiene and bacterial buildup, or an underlying concern that you might not be able to prevent. The problem with wisdom teeth, or third molars, is that the concerns they can cause when they become impacted aren’t exactly preventable. Wisdom tooth impaction can affect anyone who develops a third set of molars, and when it does, surgically extracting the impacted tooth structure could be the only viable solution. (more…)
Other Reasons Why a Tooth Might Need Extraction
One of the most frequent reasons for having to extract a tooth is because it’s a third molar (or wisdom tooth) that’s become impacted and is unable to erupt properly. Surgically extracting the molar helps eliminate the discomfort that it causes and protects the rest of your oral health from further complications. However, being impacted isn’t the only reason why a tooth might need to be extracted. Today, we examine a few others, and why extracting the tooth may be the best thing for the future of your oral health. (more…)
How Tooth Loss Continues to Impact Your Smile
For most dental health concerns, undergoing the right customized dental treatment can alleviate the problem and stop it from getting worse so you can preserve your healthy smile. However, tooth loss is different than other oral health concerns in many ways. For instance, tooth loss doesn’t occur on its own, but is often a symptom of a serious underlying health concern or accidental trauma. Also, for many traditional dental prostheses, replacing the lost teeth doesn’t address all of the problems resulting from the loss. This means tooth loss can continue to impact your smile even after you’ve replaced them with a conventional bridge or denture, though you can prevent many of those impacts with the help of a dental implant-supported restoration. (more…)
What Does Oral Health Have to Do with Systemic Health?
There are simple steps to keeping your smile consistently healthy, such as brushing your teeth twice and flossing at least once every day, as well as visiting your general dentist routinely for preventive checkups and cleanings. In some cases, maintaining your good oral health may be more complex, and more involved treatment may be required to address a problem that has developed. In any case, the benefits that come with consistently maintaining your good oral health can often be more profound than many people realize. Today, we examine the connection between your oral health and systemic health, and why a healthy smile matters to your physical wellbeing. (more…)
Why Is Extraction Common for Wisdom Teeth?
While healthy, natural adult teeth are capable of lasting a lifetime with the right care and maintenance, some teeth may face problems during their growth and development that can compromised that capability. Wisdom teeth, or third molars, are among the most common types of teeth to develop such problems, such as becoming impacted due to insufficient space at the ends of many people’s dental ridges. Because of the problems that this impaction can cause, wisdom teeth are also one of the most commonly extracted types of teeth. (more…)
Dr. Rogers was published in CDA’s November Issue. Click above to see his article (pg.601).