Dental Extraction Guide

Image Source:ericah.blog.com

After the initial challenge of encouraging children to brush their teeth, another problem rears its cavity-covered face. Certainly, this next trial may not be as obvious as the first, but in some ways it is even more difficult to manage. This next dental dilemma presents its form as making sure children are brushing their teeth properly. After all, it is not enough to make sure kids brush their teeth thrice a day; more importantly, dentists and parents must make sure that children do not brandish their toothbrushes as if they were swords or wands inside their mouths, as bleeding gums are obviously not the point of brushing one’s teeth. Hence, it is only necessary that children are taught the proper motions of brushing their teeth in order to make sure that they don’t miss a spot or brush too harshly. True, this may sound like a futile task after having presented the activity of brushing one’s teeth as an adventure that comes with a Catchy!Tune or a Yummy!Toothpaste, but adults only need to remember—and remind their kids, that the time-old cliché still rings dazzling white and true: imagination is the key. A few reminders here and there that Knights in Shining Armor or Hogwarts Witches must have pearly-white teeth, and it is almost certain that teaching kids how to brush their teeth properly won’t be too much of a monster to conquer after all.

Performing root canal therapy and placing a crown on the tooth can sometimes save one from dental extraction. However, severe cases of tooth damage will require a more drastic treatment such as extraction. That is why another possible alternative is delaying treatment, although, this one is highly not advised since postponing treatment will only cause the problem to worsen.

Your dentist will offer two main reasons for you to have your tooth or teeth pulled: 1) Severely damaged tooth, or; 2) Misaligned or nonfunctional teeth. In both cases, dental extraction is necessary, most especially when such cases are so extreme that regular reconstruction work can no longer restore the damage.

After getting a tooth extraction, one must deal with the side effect of anesthesia: numbness of the mouth. It’s neither uncomfortable or not, it’s just disturbing that there’s a hanging lip that doesn’t feel quite that it belongs to you. However, things are going to change for the better.

Novalar Pharmaceuticals just got a go signal from the Food and Drugs Administration to market OraVerse, a drug meant to undo the effects of anesthesia. According to them they’ll start selling the drug for $12.50 a shot.

The drug is not recommended to children below 6. Their target market most likely will be children (older than 6 of course) because they tend to accidentally bite their tongue when it’s numb. Another market to tap are those who just got some cosmetic dental work done and who would wish to look great when they leave the dentist’s office.

Source

Smoking and tooth extractions don’t mix; and when they do it’s a painful combination. An alveolar osteitis also known as a dry socket occurs when a bone has been exposed in the place where the tooth was taken out.

Usually, a blood clot appears and healing occurs automatically after the dental procedure. However, if the clot is lost partially or prematurely, the bone underneath causes severe pain and throbs as though the tooth ache is still there. This is accompanied by a foul smell in the mouth.

In order to alleviate pain, the dentist usually advises that there will be no sucking through straws, nor rising or smoking for the next 48 to 72 hours.

Source

Dead Jaw Syndrome or Osteonecrosis of the Jaw happens when bone tissue in the jaw fails to heal after a minor trauma like getting your tooth extracted. However, there are some instances that particular drugs that increases the risk of this condition.

Researchers form the University of Southern California School of Dentistry are saying that microbial biofilms are the culprit behind this infection. It was also found out that taking bisphosphonate drugs like Fosamax, Boniva and Actonel makes the infection worse. These drugs are prescribed to patients with osteoporosis. According to one of the researchers:

“Now that we’ve know biofilms are behind the infection of the jaw, we are studying ways to effectively treat or prevent the osteonecrosis.”

Source

by: Christine Zafra

If you love sodas and can’t live without them when eating your favorite steak, you better thank Virginia Tech for clarifying the connection of soft drinks with tooth decay. There is none, said the pioneers of the research.

But before you jump around and buy a crate of soda for you personal consumption (really, where do you put those?), here is the catch: that study is only effective for the children, the teenagers and the adolescents. People 25 and up? You better contain your soda intake. Also, your teeth are much brittle than before, so a little carbonated water can wash up the enamel, slowly but surely.

by: Christine Zafra

If you think only the movie Minority Report can predict what’s going to happen in the future, then think twice. This has something to do with a person’s teeth (not pre-crime though) and saliva (again, not the pre-cognitive). Researchers from the University of Southern California said that they have developed something useful for the world of dentistry. With the use of a child’s saliva (a swab or a drop maybe), they can now determine (30 – 40 years from testing) if that child will get cavities, which of the forming teeth will have cavities and how many. Talk about Sci-fi!

There are thousands of dentists and different types of dental professionals today. There are specialists like oral and maxillofacial surgeons, periodontists and prosthodontists.

Everyone is cautioned, though, to choose wisely because a growing number of manufacturers of dental equipment and implants are training general dentists through quick courses on placing dental implants surgically. So if you go for tooth extraction and then implants, you should be 100% sure of your dentist’s training.

Veteran implant surgeons claim that in order to become proficient at implant placement, he or she should have already done hundreds of implants. So do demand from the dentist information like how many implants has he or she performed and how long he or she is doing dental implant procedures.

by: Christine Zafra

Tufts University made a study about the connection of dental problems with being a potato couch. Can you guess what the results were?

Yes, of course, the two are related with each other. And if you guessed that they are directly proportional (if one goes up, the other goes up too), then you are correct again. The longer the hours children (and the adults too!) stay in front of the idiot box, the higher their chances of getting a tooth decay since they eat a lot of calorie packed foods (i.e. junk food etc.). Responsible parents should restrain the hours of their kids in front of the TV, or better yet, give them salad or apples so that they’ll be healthier.