Surgery and Tooth Care at the Dentist

Maintaining one’s personal health involves quite a few different arenas, ranging from blood circulation to bones to eyesight and body fat, and for anyone two years old or older, this also includes the teeth. Many millions of Americans go to the dentist every single year for checkups and cleaning for themselves or their kids, and this can help prevent painful and expensive health problems with the teeth from happening. Other times, a patient may visit the dentist’s office for something more serious, such as an ingrown tooth, cavities, diseased tooth pulp, or misalignment of the teeth. Problems such as a cavity or an ingrown tooth always call for a visit to the dentist’s office, but the good news is that a quality dentist may never be far away, and dentists are often highly trusted and respected among the general populace. Dental implants or braces can also be put in, or lower jaw surgery may be done by the best oral surgeon a patient can find. An ingrown tooth or tooth rot can be taken care of right away with professional hands.

Medical Procedures at the Office

Dentistry ranks as among the top 10 most trusted and ethical professions in the United States today, and dental assistants are also highly motivated and qualified medical professionals who can help any patient with an ingrown tooth, getting full dental implants, and more. While routine cleaning and checkups are common, what are some more serious tooth issues that may arise, and what can be done to fix them?

An ingrown tooth is one reason to visit the dentist’s office today, and such a tooth can cause symptoms such as pain, swelling, difficulty opening the mouth, or even bleeding gums, according to Health Line. Often, it is a wisdom tooth that ends up as an ingrown tooth, and these teeth try to grow into the mouth after the jaw has already finished growing, meaning that there is no room for this extra tooth. The result is that the tooth will be partially or fully embedded in the mouth, and it may cause some problems while it’s inside the gums and jaw. An ingrown, or impacted, tooth may be diagnosed by accident when an X-ray is taken of the patient’s mouth, or when a patient visits the dentist with the symptoms listed above. If an ingrown tooth is found, it can be removed with extraction surgery, which involves local anesthesia and a procedure that may take around 45 minutes to an hour to complete. The patient may go home the same day.

Meanwhile, tooth infection may call for other surgeries. If a tooth has the fleshy pulp inside infected, a root canal can be done. Many fear the idea of a root canal, but the process is fairly simple, and of course the affected tooth will be numbed so that there is no pain. The infected fleshy pulp will be extracted from the tooth, and the end result is that the tooth remains in place in the mouth, and it will be slightly more fragile and will no longer feel heat or cold. Meanwhile, heavily infected teeth may be removed from the mouth entirely, and cavities can be filled with metal. Missing teeth can be replaced with false ones to help maintain a full mouth of teeth.

Personal Care

Tooth care is not limited to the dentist’s office. A person can and should use a number of methods to keep their teeth healthy, which starts with basic brushing. A good toothbrush and toothpaste should be used after every meal so that sugars on the teeth, and the harmful bacteria that feed on them, can be scoured away, not to mention the plaque that these bacteria produce. A person can also floss to remove food bits found deep between the teeth, and mouthwash can help remove anything that the brush missed and freshen the breath. And in everyday life, care should be taken so that teeth do not suffer trauma. A mouth guard should be worn when playing sports, and a person should not chew on hard items such as ice cubes. These measures help prevent teeth from getting chipped or knocked out, and prevents the crowns from cracking under pressure with hard items.