Oral Surgery

Oral Surgery & Procedures

A dental extraction is the removal of teeth from the dental alveolus (socket) in the alveolar bone. Extractions are performed for a wide variety of reasons, but most commonly to remove teeth which have become unrestorable through tooth decay, periodontal disease, or dental trauma, especially when they are associated with toothache.

Wisdom teeth are the 3rd molar of each quadrant of the mouth.  If a wisdom tooth doesn't have room to grow (impacted wisdom tooth), resulting in pain, infection or other dental problems, they will likely need to be removed.  Wisdom teeth removal is considered major surgery.  Besides local anesthetic, many patients also choose a form of sedation dentistry so that they are either conscious, minimally aware of the surgery, or completely asleep.

Dental implant surgery is a procedure that replaces tooth roots with a titanium screwlike posts.  During surgery, oral surgeon makes a cut to open your gum and expose the bone. Holes are drilled into the bone where the dental implant titanium post will be placed.  Since the post will serve as the tooth root, it's implanted deep into the bone.  The implants will then be restored/connected with an artificial tooth that look and function much like real ones. 

Once a tooth is removed, over a period of time, the jawbone associated with the missing teeth is reabsorbed and is lost.  Sinus Lift/Bone Graft are procedures that allow surgeon to grow bone where needed, creating the opportunity to place implants of proper length and width.

Oral pathology is the study, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in the mouth.  If abnormal tissue occurs in the mouth, a small piece may require removal by an oral surgeon and sent for testing.  This is known as a biopsy and tissue samples are taken using a variety of cutting instruments.  Your surgeon will send the tissue samples to a pathologist, who can determine the nature of the abnormal tissue.