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If your dentist suggests removing one of your teeth, it can sometimes be unexpected. By seeking care, you would like to preserve your teeth, but certain oral health problems require extracting your problem tooth to preserve the health of the rest of your mouth. If a case of tooth decay progresses too far for a dental filling or crown to fix, a removal allows us to take the remaining shards of your tooth’s root. There are other cases where root canal therapy fails to fully remove a bacterial infection, and removing the tooth helps prevent the bacteria from entering your bloodstream and spreading throughout your body. Sometimes a physical injury simply breaks away too much of a tooth to stably hold repair work. Whenever any of these unfortunate events occur, think of removing your tooth as the first step in restoring your smile with a lifelike prosthetic.

At your Newport Beach, CA dental practice, we will only suggest extracting a tooth when no other conservative procedure is available to treat your injury. We can offer a dental bridge or implant to restore your smile after clearing your problem tooth. This means that pulling a tooth does not need to leave a permanent gap in your smile.

Injuries That Require Tooth Removal

The goal of dentistry is maintaining your oral health and restoring the beauty of your smile. In general, this requires repairing teeth and preventing decay from wearing away their healthy material, but sometimes removing a tooth is the only option for addressing a dental injury. When decay, infection, or trauma severely damages your tooth, we will exhaust all other options before moving to extraction. If gum disease is the cause of your tooth loss, we could remove a few remaining teeth to prepare a set of dentures when loss has already taken most of your smile.

Extracting Your Tooth

We will apply a general anesthetic when removing one of your teeth to ensure your comfort. After properly numbing the affected area, we will rock your tooth back and forth to loosen it from its socket. By packing the socket with gauze, we can stem the bleeding and prepare you to recover from your surgery.

Restoring Your Lost Tooth

After removing your tooth, we can discuss your options for replacement. Dental implants and bridges can return the look of a full set of teeth, as well as offer needed support for your bite. By stabilizing your alignment, you can prevent damage to remaining teeth and preserve them from needing replacement in the future.

Talk To Your Newport Beach, CA, Dentist About Booking A Tooth Extraction

To learn more about how we can remove your tooth safely and place a restoration, call Dr. Hofkes at Balboa Dental Surgery at (949) 630-0143 to schedule an appointment today.