Find out when a tooth extraction may be necessary for your smile.
A tooth extraction is a procedure in which our Shawnee, KS, periodontist, Dr. William Strutz, removes a tooth from its socket. While natural tooth preservation is generally ideal, there are instances when a tooth extraction may actually be the best option for the long-term health of your smile. If you are concerned about your smile, it’s important that you turn to your dentist for care. Here’s when a tooth extraction may be necessary:
Severe Decay
Most of the time, decay doesn’t necessarily deem the tooth irreparable; however, if you aren’t visiting your dentist every six months for checkups, you may have developed a large amount of decay and not even realized it. Furthermore, once decay has damaged the hard outer layers of the tooth, it will cause an infection inside the tooth.
Once the infection has spread, our Shawnee, KS, periodontic specialist may recommend a root canal to remove the infection. Other times, however, the infection is so severe that the only option is to remove the tooth to prevent the infection from spreading further. When you come into our office for a consultation, we will examine the tooth and recommend the safest and most effective solution to eliminate the infection.
Advanced Gum Disease
Gum Disease affects 47% of the adult population in the US and 70% of those over 65, thus making it the most common cause of adult tooth loss. Since gum disease doesn’t often cause symptoms until its more advanced stages, the best way to detect gum disease is to visit your dentist every six months for routine checkups. Of course, if you neglect your oral care and fail to regularly visit the dentist, it’s possible for gum disease to become so rampant that it can cause teeth to loosen or even fall out. If teeth are too loose to be salvaged, our periodontist will need to remove them.
Impacted Wisdom Teeth
Wisdom teeth are the final set of teeth to erupt, usually coming in around a person’s teen years or early 20s. While this third set of molars won’t give you more wisdom, they are likely to cause problems for your smile if you don’t have them removed. Wisdom teeth are often impacted, which means that they don’t fully erupt through the gums.
As a result, impacted teeth can increase the risk for decay, infection, and damage to neighboring teeth. If your wisdom teeth are starting to come in, it’s a good idea to visit a periodontist to learn if your wisdom teeth need to be removed.
Contact Us
From gum disease treatment and extractions to disease prevention, our Shawnee, KS, periodontal team offers services for the whole family. If you are dealing with gum disease or wonder if it’s time that your wisdom teeth came out, call us at (913) 268-0808 to schedule a consultation.