Extraction in San Antonio, TX

There are many reasons to extract a tooth and many ways to do it. At Terrell Hills Dental in San Antonio, TX, we want you to know that we’ll only recommend extraction if we think it’s the best thing to do. Our priority is to keep natural teeth and fix them, but that’s not always a viable option.

Depending on the complexity of the extraction, the type of anesthesia will be chosen. We make sure that all of our patients are completely comfortable regardless of what dental procedure is done. We’ll also prescribe some medications that you can take for a few days after the procedure to prevent discomfort.

Reasons to Extract Teeth

The most commonly extracted teeth are wisdom teeth. They’re also called 3rd molars. The problem is that they start to erupt in adolescence after other teeth already positioned themselves. It’s often the case that wisdom teeth have nowhere to grow. They can become impacted or add pressure to the 2nd molar.

The good news is that we don’t need our wisdom teeth. They’re accessory teeth that have no value and won’t affect your ability to speak or chew. That’s why they’re often extracted. Since they’re accessory teeth, there’s no reason to replace them using implants, bridges, or anything else.

Teeth that are damaged due to trauma or infection need to be removed too. If we can’t fix them, they’ll start to decay. This is a problem because they won’t look good and can infect other teeth or even distant parts of the body.

Different Extractions

Your friend might have told you about a gruesome extraction he or she had to undergo a year ago. That doesn’t mean all extractions are gruesome. If you have two wisdom teeth that need to be extracted, their extractions might be completely different. Sometimes a tooth will be extracted in under 30 minutes while in other cases, it can take up to an hour or more.

A surgical extraction involves performing an incision into the gum to free the tooth. Higher levels of sedation and anesthesia are required in surgical extractions.