At Boulder Dental Arts we are in the business of keeping your teeth healthy, strong, and functional. However, they frequently reach their natural limit and need to be removed. This can occur due to a myriad of reasons, from extensive decay to physical fracture to rejection from the body. There may come a time when we can throw all the dentistry in the world at a tooth without success, and you need to cut your losses and get a tooth extraction. Luckily Dr. Jeffrey Patrician is your Boulder area oral surgeon to help you have a great experience with all of your dental needs, even while getting a tooth pulled.
What to Expect During a Tooth Extraction
We appreciate a tooth extraction can be a mentally traumatic event, losing a part of your body, but it need not be physically traumatic. And with the advancement of dental implants in the last 40 years it is now possible for you to replace your lost tooth, preserving the bone and returning yourself to proper function and esthetics.
The process of a tooth extraction is relatively simple. It is a matter of geometry and physics. Your tooth is a certain shape, and to pull it requires a correct application of force to allow that shape to move. It may sound frightening, but is typically tolerated quite well. We numb the daylights out of the area, and during the removal you will feel some pressure and possibly hear a little noise, but it is otherwise painless.
Depending on our plans for the area you may also want to graft it with some donor bone. This appears as coarse grains of sand mixed with PRF taken from your own blood. The graft doesn’t ‘become’ bone, it is a scaffold that informs your body where bone should be. You naturally resorb and excrete the graft material and replace it with new, healthy bone. If circumstances are good we can potentially insert your replacement implant at the very same time, dramatically reducing the time you spend without a tooth.
Recovery From Getting a Tooth Pulled
Your body needs time to heal, there’s no way around that. Discomfort will last on average between 3-10 days, although the level of pain is typically very manageable. We have noticed people tend to have a little rebound discomfort around day 8 or 9 of healing as well. During this time you want to avoid foods that are hard or crunchy, and chew on the other side if you can. Bleeding issues are infrequent, but you will notice the day or two after the surgery you will see some blood while brushing your teeth. That is usually a small amount mixed with saliva, which can make it appear more than it really is.
You will be given instructions on keeping the area clean during your appointment. We strive to minimize trauma during your extraction as this will directly help the speed and comfort of your healing. You may also elect to have this done under oral or IV sedation. This allows you to sleep your way through things, or otherwise not remember the experience at all. If you can’t remember it, did it really happen? Yes. But you won’t care! To help your recovery be sure to follow all instructions from our staff at Boulder Dental Arts.
Think you might need a tooth extraction? Or are you looking for a new dentist in the Boulder area? Schedule an appointment at Boulder Dental Arts to see the best dentist in Boulder!