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Post-Extraction Pain in Adjacent Teeth: Why It Happens and What You Should Do

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When you have a tooth extracted, it goes without saying that you will experience some after-surgery pain in the days that follow. However, though it isn't often mentioned, the teeth adjacent to the extraction site may also hurt after a tooth is extracted.

Although dentists would like every tooth extraction to be a simple matter, the truth is that the opposite is often true, especially when it comes to wisdom teeth or molars.

Surgical Extractions May Affect Adjacent Teeth

Simple extractions in which the tooth to be extracted still has a good portion of remaining structure, a tooth can be removed by a general dentist with little effort. However, when a tooth is badly decayed or damaged, an oral surgeon will need to surgically remove the tooth. During a surgical extraction, the dental practitioner may need to fold a section of the gum tissue back to get a better grip on a tooth.

Currently, most surgical extractions require the use of tools such as scalpels and drills to remove teeth with little remaining tooth structure. Because of the difficulty involved, adjacent teeth may come into contact with the surgical tools being used to extract a tooth. When this happens, these teeth may be sensitive for several days following the surgery.

There Should Be No Lasting Damage

Dentists do their best to ensure that the surrounding teeth are not affected during an extraction. However, when they are, the pain and sensitivity that results from it should subside within a few days. An affected tooth may even feel loose afterwards and hurt when biting down but this should last no longer than a week.

On occasion, fillings may also come loose but these can be replaced by your dentist after the extraction.

Some Dental Practices Use Laser Surgery

It is common for some patients to experience dental fear at the thought of scalpels, drills and needles. If you don't like the idea of a surgical extraction involving traditional methods, modern dentistry also utilizes laser technology to extract teeth. Using light-beams to cut teeth allows for much more precision and decreases the risk of adjacent teeth being damaged during surgery.

Bleeding and healing time are also reduced with this method of extraction, however, tooth extraction utilizing laser technology is more expensive.

If you don't like the idea of having a tooth extracted using traditional methods, talk to a dentist about laser technology. This will cost more but ensure that fragile adjacent teeth are not damaged during the extraction. For more information, contact offices like Melrose Dental.


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