There are circumstances where the best decision for a person’s overall oral health involves the extraction of their tooth. While you can be aware of the benefits to this extraction, the idea of showing off an incomplete smile may make you uncomfortable. Fortunately, our California oral surgery practice is prepared to take on an extraction and replacement of an unhealthy tooth! In some cases, we can actually move forward with plans to restore your smile by placing a dental implant after removing a tooth. Once the implant is set and properly healed, you can receive a lifelike restoration that makes biting, chewing, and smiling feel comfortable. (more…)
All-On-Four Treatment Can Make Smile Restoration Easier
While the use of dental implants in prosthetic dental work has led to better experiences with prosthetic appliances, people sometimes about the implant placement process. This can be especially true for those who have suffered significant losses, and worry that implant placement will be a prolonged and uncomfortable experience. With the All-On-Four procedure, our office is able to prepare a person for treatment while minimizing the number of implants they receive, and the work they must undergo. Rather than move forward with a process that requires a long recovery period, and may demand jawbone grafting, we can instead arrange to place four implants in carefully chosen areas to hold an appliance in position. (more…)
What Jawbone Grafting Has to Do with Dental Implants
The good news about dental implants is that they don’t just replace lost teeth roots, they also help preserve your jawbone’s strength and integrity by stimulating it. Every time you bite and chew with your new implants, the stimulation tells your body that your jawbone has teeth to support with minerals and nutrients. However, until a dental implant is placed, this stimulation is lacking, and so is the amount of nutrients your body sends your jawbone. The resulting drop in nutrient flow can lead to the loss of your jawbone’s mass and density, and if severe enough, it could mean that you should consider jawbone grafting before receiving your dental implants. (more…)
What’s the Difference Between General and Surgical Extraction?
Tooth extraction seems like a straightforward process, and in many ways it is. If a tooth is in a position that poses a threat to the rest of your oral health, or is too severely compromised to restore and save, then extracting it may be necessary. However, the specific method of extracting a tooth can vary, depending on the nature of why it needs to be extracted and the state of its remaining tooth structure. Today, we examine the difference between general and surgical tooth extraction, and the situations that might call for either. (more…)
Signs that Your Wisdom Teeth Have Become Impacted
The most well-known thing about wisdom teeth, or third molars, is that they’re often the most problematic of all of your teeth. For some people, the trouble begins right away, as the molar may be impacted within the jawbone before it ever has a chance to erupt. For others, the tooth may partially erupt, but fail to completely because it’s impacted by the second molar already present. While impaction can mean different things for different wisdom teeth, some of the signs are often similar. If you experience any of them, then it may be time to consider surgically extracting your wisdom teeth. (more…)
3 Important Aspects of Tooth Loss
Your entire body is designed to optimize efficiency, so when something significant changes (like losing one or more teeth), it can have farther reaching impacts than you might expect. Tooth loss in particular is a serious problem for more reasons than patients often realize, and to rebuild your smile, we’ll strive to address all of its many different consequences. Today, we take a look at three of the most notable aspects of tooth loss, and how dental implants can often offer the best solution for addressing them. (more…)
Reasons Why Your Jawbone Might Be Weaker than Before
As the foundation of your smile, the health and integrity of your jawbone structure play important roles in most aspects of your oral health. If it’s compromised due to weakness or a deformity in its structure, then correcting the issue may help improve your oral health, your bite function, your smile’s and face’s appearance, and much more. Today, we examine a few of the more common reasons why your jawbone structure might have grown weaker, and the different solutions we offer to help fortify it again. (more…)
Are Your Risks for Tooth Loss Higher than Usual?
To some people, tooth loss seems like the kind of thing they’re going to have to deal with at some point in their lives. They may believe the best thing they can do is try to keep their smiles healthy until then, not realizing they could be doing more to prevent having to lose and replace their teeth. The truth is that, in many cases, tooth loss is highly preventable. It’s just a matter of identifying your specific risk factors for it, and taking appropriate steps to lower and control those risks. (more…)
3 Things You Can Only Regain with Dental Implants
The thing about your teeth is that they consist of, and are responsible for, a lot more than what you can see. Therefore, replacing your lost teeth in a way that rebuilds your smile’s health and function may require more than you expect at first. For example, in addition to the visible parts of your teeth that make up your smile and process your foods, they also consist of roots that lie within your jawbone and keep them steady. When you experience tooth loss, it’s easy to only see the visible results, but your teeth roots and their vital functions are something you can only regain with the help of dental implants. (more…)
The Results of Postponing Wisdom Tooth Extraction
Wisdom teeth, or third molars, are unique to your other teeth in several important ways. For one thing, they aren’t exactly necessary. Over the past millennia, the human diet has grown softer, and two sets of permanent molars are more than adequate to process it. Our jawbone’s have also grown smaller, which often leads to problems arising with the growth and development of third molars. At our Santa Rosa, CA, oral surgery office, we often recommend surgically extracting impacted wisdom teeth as soon as possible to reduce these symptoms, or avoid them if they haven’t already become noticeable. (more…)
Dr. Rogers was published in CDA’s November Issue. Click above to see his article (pg.601).