Generally, when you need some work carried out inside your mouth and on your teeth, you’d go to a dentist. However, is that, always right? You may not give a second thought when it is something as standard as a general check-up or a scale and polish. When it is something a little more complex, is a dentist really the right professional for the job?
It may be worth asking “do you need an oral surgeon, instead? Perhaps you didn’t even realize there was much of a difference if any at all between these two very similar professions.
Although the average dentist is qualified and experienced to perform some standard treatments, some of the more specialist procedures require the skilled hands and know how of an oral surgeon.
We understand that you may not always know which treatments are best performed by oral surgeons, though. Therefore, rather than waiting for a referral from your regular dentist, below we have highlighted the dentistry and oral work that is best handled by oral surgeons, especially if you have baton rouge migraines caused by temporomandibular joint pain.
Secondary and Follow-up Root Canals
Root canals sometimes don’t offer the desired results. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it was badly performed, though, as teeth are full of tiny nerves and canals and it is incredibly hard to remove the infection that is causing pain and problems.
Therefore, if you are experiencing continual toothache and you’ve just had root canal work, it may be time to look to an oral surgeon. They can take care of a secondary root canal. There is also an alternative procedure that may be more effective known as an Apicoectomy. Either way, oral surgeons are the best professionals to handle endodontic treatments.
Reattaching Teeth That Have Been Knocked Out
Did you know if the work is carried out within 2 hours of your teeth being knocked out or falling out, that an oral surgeon can reattach them? Well, now you do. You need to act fast, though, rinsing off the missing tooth or teeth, without scrubbing at it or damaging the root.
Surgical Extractions
You may not have realized but there are two different kinds of tooth extraction. There are what is known as simple extractions, where the tooth can be easily seen in the gum and removed in one piece, and there are surgical extractions that are a bit more complicated. Those are necessary when the tooth is not easy to see and a professional needs to make an incision to open the gum line and take the tooth out in pieces. For the latter, it is always better to get an oral surgeon to perform them.
Dental Implants
When you need to fill any gaps in your teeth, you may consider dental implants. These are completed in two different phases – the initial implantation and what is known as the final restoration. There are indeed some regular dentists who are appropriately qualified to work on dental implant placements. However, not many of them carry out this work often.
General dental practitioners spend most of their time completing fillings, check-ups, scale and polish, and other common procedures and tasks. Oral surgeons, however, tend to have a lot of practical experience working with dental implants, so they are better suited to offer the best quality of service.
Wisdom Tooth Extraction
Wisdom teeth also referred to in more technical terms as third molars, usually erupt at any point from 17 to 23 years old. The problem with this is that most mouths and gums do not have adequate space to accommodate the eruption of third molars.
As wisdom teeth tend to erupt only partially, they are impacted into your gum line, which can not only cause you a lot of chronic pain and discomfort but increase the risk of infections developing.
Yes, regular dental practitioners are qualified and capable of performing wisdom teeth extractions. However, if you want to ensure the procedure is performed to the highest standard, ensuring that you are comfortable and safe, it’s best to look to a fully qualified oral surgeon for this type of work. This is particularly true when the teeth that need to be removed are either severely infected or impacted.
For many of the treatments noted above, you will notice that you can go to either a regular dentist in Yorba Linda or oral surgeon and it will be down to your own personal preference which you choose. However, if you are interested in experiencing the best possible results, with the least amount of risk, we would always recommend an oral surgeon for any of the 5 procedures listed above.