Tooth Extractions in Gretna, LA

A bad tooth not only hurts when you eat but can also keep you up at night and stop you from getting a good night's sleep. The body cannot heal infected teeth on it's own and requires a dentist to help treat the tooth before it gets worse. Sometimes this means that infected teeth need to be removed in order to stop pain and to prevent the spread of infection.

Other teeth serve little to no purpose in our mouth such as wisdom teeth. In these mouths, the adage “if it's not helping, it's hurting” applies. These useless teeth will cause problems in the future and can cause problems not only to themselves but also with their neighboring teeth. These teeth are difficult if not impossible to keep clean and need to be removed for that reason.

When teeth are no longer doing you any good, you should consider having them removed. Dr. Russell Schafer enjoys helping his patients have comfortable and healthy mouths and is happy to offer as gentle of tooth extraction as possible. The goal of extracting a tooth is to cause the least amount of trauma to the gums and the bone surrounding the tooth as possible. With newer instruments and good technique often times little to no damage is done to the body so that you can heal quickly. After a tooth is removed, Dr. Schafer will often place some medicine in the space left by the tooth to ensure better healing and to help prevent problems.
Extractions are classified in a few different ways depending on difficulty and technique used.

Routine Extractions 

Routine extractions refer to tooth removal that can be used by gently moving the teeth around so that the ligament that holds the tooth to the bone releases the tooth so that the tooth can come out in one piece.  Teeth that only have one root or have bone loss generally are generally routine extractions.

Surgical Extraction

Put simply, a surgical extraction is any extraction that is not a routine extraction.  Generally, a small amount of bone is removed or the offending tooth itself is cut into smaller pieces so that each piece can be removed separately and more easily. Surgical extractions are often needed with teeth that are broken at the gum line, root canal treated teeth, teeth with multiple roots, or teeth strong bone around them. After the tooth is removed, generally a stitch and some medicine are placed to aid with healing.  Many times a surgical extraction is done instead of a routine extraction so that the extraction takes less time and the treatment is less invasive.

After Treatment

For each of his patients who have had a tooth removed, Dr. Schafer will give a prescription for pain medication and offers every patient the opportunity to return in one week for a complimentary post-operative check-up. If you have any concerns about the treatment afterward, you can always return to the office for a checkup to make sure that everything is healing properly. Are you having problems with your teeth and want to see if you need to have them removed? If so please call us at NOLA Dentures and General Dentistry today to schedule your appointment.