How Should I Prepare for Wisdom Teeth Removal?
Sometime during your late teens or early adulthood, you receive the shock of your life when you visit your dentist with pain and infection in your mouth near the back teeth, the molars. The dentist informs that you need surgical removal of a wisdom tooth, significantly if it is impacted and results in infections in your mouth.
Wisdom tooth extraction is a surgical procedure to extract one or more wisdom teeth, part of your last four permanent teeth emerging in the jaw. Wisdom teeth are positioned in the back corners of your mouth in the top and bottom jaws.
You develop impacted wisdom teeth when your jaw has inadequate space to accommodate them. The affected wisdom tooth results in pain, infection, and other dental issues making it likely to be pulled.
While the procedure appears frightening, it is relatively straightforward and performed on many routinely by dentists and oral surgeons. For example, the dentist completes wisdom teeth removal in Providence, RI, in approximately 35 minutes if it is a visible tooth. Unfortunately, if you have an impacted molar that is complicated to remove, the procedure might require around 60 minutes.
Are There Risks Involved with Wisdom Teeth Removal?
Most wisdom teeth extraction procedures do not result in long-term complications. However, removing an impacted wisdom tooth needing a surgical approach that involves making incisions in the gums and removing bone might include difficulties rarely. They are painful dry sockets if you lose the blood clot from the surgical site, infection in the tooth socket from trapped food particles or bacteria, and damage to the neighboring teeth, jawbone, nerves, or teeth.
Preparing for Wisdom Teeth Extraction
The Providence dentist removes wisdom teeth in the dental office unless your tooth is severely impacted or needs a surgical approach, when you might receive a referral to see an oral surgeon. Besides making the area of the tooth numb with local anesthesia, the dentist might also suggest sedation to enable you to be comfortable during the removal.
Before accepting the suggestion to have the wisdom tooth removed, you may want to ask your dentist several questions relating to how many wisdom teeth need removal, the kind of anesthesia you will receive, how complicated the procedure is besides its duration, risks of nerve damage and other dental treatments you might need later and the time it takes to heal entirely to return to regular activities.
Preparing for the Surgical Procedure
Wisdom teeth extractions are generally performed in an outpatient procedure, ensuring you can return home after getting the tooth removed. You will receive instructions from your dentist or hospital on what to do before surgery and on the day of your scheduled procedure. Kindly ask the following questions to prepare for the surgery. Should you make transportation arrangements, and when do you need to arrive at the hospital? Can you take your prescription medications before your surgery, and how soon must you have them? Should you avoid non-prescription drugs before the procedure?
Besides the above, you must ensure you arrange for soft foods to nourish yourself and a resting place because you will not be able to move around after your surgery. In addition, the dentist recommends not to become involved in strenuous activity and rest for a couple of days until you heal from the process.
The Wisdom Teeth Removal Procedure
Depending on the complexity of the tooth removal and your dental anxiety, you will likely receive local anesthesia in the mouth besides sedation or intravenous anesthesia. The dentist or oral surgeon must make incisions in your gums to expose the wisdom tooth and bone, even if you undergo emergency wisdom tooth removal. They must remove bone blocking access to the tooth root before dividing it into sections for comfortable removal. After tooth removal, the professional will clean the surgical site and place gauze to help control bleeding and assist in blood clot formation.
You receive an entire set of instructions to follow from your dentist or oral surgeon depending on the kind of extraction you underwent. You must adhere to your dentist’s instructions to ensure you don’t invite complications in your mouth that might result in needing emergency dental care after wisdom teeth removal.
Preparing for your wisdom tooth surgery requires following some simple steps before your procedure to ensure you don’t have to expend energy when recovering. In addition, your dentist provides specific pre-and post-surgical instructions to educate you on what to expect. Therefore if you are encountering pain from your wisdom teeth, kindly do not hesitate to contact the Providence dentist to remove the problematic tooth before it aggravates your condition.
Drs Rubinstein and Ducoff perform many wisdom teeth removal procedures as a relatively straightforward procedure. Consult them with your problematic tooth and get it removed by them as soon as possible without fearing the process.