Brunette woman in a dental chair smiles before receiving a tooth extraction in Lowell

Signs You May Need a Tooth Extraction

November 27, 2020 2:19 am

We know that no one wants to entertain the thought that they might need a tooth extraction. As dental professionals, it’s our goal to help you keep all your natural teeth! However, there are certain situations where a tooth extraction may be the best course of action to protect and preserve your smile.

Here are some signs that you might need to get a tooth removed:

  1. Loose Permanent Teeth

    2. It’s normal when baby teeth start to loosen as they’re getting ready to fall out, but that’s definitely not the case with permanent teeth. If one or more of your adult teeth are loose, it can be a sign of serious gum or jawbone damage. Rather than letting that infection worsen and experiencing further damage, it may be best to have the affected tooth removed.

  2. Wisdom Teeth

    3. Not all wisdom teeth need to be removed. We recommend getting your wisdom teeth removed if they are causing overcrowding or damage to your neighboring teeth, or if they are impacted. Impacted means that the wisdom teeth can’t come in properly and end up getting stuck below the surface of the gums. When you leave impacted wisdom teeth in place, it can cause other complications like an infection or jawbone damage.

  3. Severe Tooth Decay

    4. Early-stage tooth decay can be reversed with improved oral hygiene and remineralization. Cavities can be treated with a filling. More severe decay can often be treated with root canal therapy. But sometimes tooth decay is so severe that a filling nor root canal therapy cannot safely preserve your natural tooth. In these very serious cases, a tooth extraction may be the best course of action.

  4. Crowded Teeth

    5. Does it seem like there’s not enough room in your mouth for all your teeth to fit properly and they’re starting to almost bunch up on each other, even after orthodontic treatment? This is a situation called crowding. If crowding is preventing you from having proper teeth alignment, which in turn makes it harder to maintain your oral health, it may be in your best interest to get a tooth extraction.

  5. Severe Dental Infection/Abscess

    6. A dental abscess or infection can show itself as a pocket of pus around your tooth. Unfortunately, these infections don’t go away without the help of dental treatment. While we’ll try to remedy the situation with more conservative treatments, such as drainage or root canal therapy, some cases require tooth extraction.

Worried you might need a tooth extraction? During your next visit to our Lowell dental practice, we’ll be able to determine if a tooth extraction is truly necessary or if there’s another restorative procedure that can help. Contact Bright Smiles Dental today to set up a consultation!

CONTACT US

Categorised in:

Comments are closed here.