What Is Emergency Tooth Extraction?
When the tooth needs to be extracted within 24-48 hours then it is considered emergency tooth extraction. Toothache comes in different degrees of pain that make it difficult to judge which emergency is or not. When painkillers and other home remedies do not reduce tooth pain then it may be the right time for tooth extraction. Here are all the details you need to know about emergency tooth extraction in NYC.
Reasons for Emergency Tooth Extraction
When the severe tooth pain is ignored and postponed to another day then it may lead to a more serious tooth issue that can impact your health too. Here are teeth issues that require emergency tooth extraction:
Intense Tooth Pain That Is Also Persistent – Any level of tooth pain is the brain nerves signalling that it needs immediate attention. If you have suffered from intense tooth pain earlier then you would easily know that is such an awful experience. When the over-the-counter pills, home remedies and ice packs don’t give you relief then see the dentist immediately.
Painful Swelling – If there is swelling around the tooth that has spread to the jaw also, that could indicate an infected tooth or a gum infection. Such an infection is also known as an abscess. It is a bacterial infection that spreads in the mouth and does not reduce without treatment. With the increased swelling there are chances that the infection may spread to other parts of the body too and to avoid it, an emergency tooth extraction may have to be conducted to remove the infected tooth.
Severely Damaged Tooth – Chipped or cracked tooth can be corrected with a regular dental visit but when the damage is severe such as a fracture and broken tooth then it has to be addressed immediately since the damaged tooth may cause further damage to inner tissues and gums too. In such a situation emergency tooth extraction is a must.
The procedure of Tooth Extraction
Pre Requisites
The tooth extraction procedure begins with the dentist asking for your medical history details. This is a pre-requisite since it’s important to know if you have any existing health condition that needs to be addressed since there should not be any further infection caused by the tooth extraction.
Some of the conditions that are considered to be checked are liver disease, heart disease and a flawed immune system. In some cases, the dentist may ask you to take antibiotics to avoid any infections before and after the extraction procedure.
On completion of medical details, an X-ray will be taken by the clinic to know the exact situation of the tooth and the approach to proceed with the extraction.
The Extraction Procedure
The dentist would induce local anesthesia to the teeth area. If the extraction is a more complicated one, then general anesthesia will be administered instead of local anesthesia. Using anesthesia will help in numbing gums, jawbone and teeth and also make sure that the procedure is not painful at all.
On numbing the area, the extracted tooth is removed with forceps. The loosening of the tooth is done before removal and sometimes bone or gum tissues may also be removed if they are infected. It is important to stop the further spread of the infection.
On completion of extraction, the dentist cleans up the empty socket. Few extractions may require sutures which will be self-dissolving. This may be required for effective healing of the extracted area. There can be minor bleeding after extraction that is controlled with gauze.
After the tooth extraction procedure is complete post-op instructions will be given to the patient that will help in quickening the healing process. Following the given instructions are very important to evade the chances of having a dry socket. A simple tooth extraction recovery time will be for a week. If it’s a complicated tooth extraction then the recovery period may be up to a few weeks. Some of the instructions to be followed can be avoiding hard and sticky foods and consuming only soft and liquid foods since the extracted area would be very sensitive.
Cold compression and using ice packs will bring down the pain that is evident after the effect of anesthesia comes down.
Because the extracted area would be empty, the dentist will suggest tooth replacement options such as dentures or bridges depending on the place of extraction and the number of teeth extracted.
