![]() ![]() Without treatment, the tissue around the tooth can become infected and an abscess may form. If the nerve of one of your teeth has become infected or the pulp of the tooth has been damaged, your entire mouth is in danger. These two procedures focus on the same result and seek the same outcome, but there are differences. In fact, you probably never saw the word apicoectomy until you read it here. While these procedures are similar, and both attack the cause that seems to warrant tooth extraction, a root canal is by far the more common. ![]() Two procedures that are commonly used as alternatives to tooth extraction are root canal and apicoectomy. If I don’t want a tooth removed, what else can be done? A slightly loose tooth may not be cause for an extraction, but once a tooth is loose enough to be wiggled about by you, it’s probably time to take it out, before the infection can reach the tissue that is holding up other teeth. This is a specific type of infection that occurs in the tissue and bones that surround your teeth, and that causes a tooth to lose the tight support it needs to function properly. If not caught early, infections may not respond to antibiotics, so extracting the infected tooth may be the only way to stop the spread of the infection and keep you from losing even more teeth. Yes, your mouth can get infected! If you have significant tooth decay or tooth damage, bacteria can move into the center of the tooth (called the pulp) where the nerves and blood vessels are. This can cause misalignment of the entire row of teeth or cause a new tooth to be unable to emerge. But occasionally a person’s teeth are too big for their mouth. Like that egg carton, your jaw is meant to hold a certain number of teeth that fit well and cause no problems. Now imagine what would happen if you tried to add another egg. Think of an egg carton with twelve pockets for the eggs it’s intended to hold. There are three common reasons why we might recommend removing a tooth.Ĭrowding. Sometimes, however, what is meant to be, doesn’t happen. Your adult teeth are meant to last a lifetime, and they usually do. Wisdom teeth aside, however, removing other teeth is rarely done without a very good reason. Removing wisdom teeth is usually done as a preventive measure, to keep these “extra” molars from pushing other teeth out of place and causing improper alignment or bite. This has been such a common practice for so long that it’s almost a rite of passage to adulthood. The tooth extraction most people are aware of is the removal of the wisdom teeth at the very ends of your rows of teeth. Safely extracting a tooth takes more than simply “pulling teeth.” And while it may be a solution to certain dental problems, there are alternatives to extraction that are safe and effective. Appealing as this method may be to a dentist-fearing child, it’s certainly not recommended. Many people of a certain age can recall seeing comical illustrations of children – usually little boys – pulling out a bothersome tooth by tying a string between the tooth and a doorknob and slamming that door shut. ![]()
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