Most of the times when you visit your dentist, the best news you can receive is that your natural teeth are in perfect health and you’re on track to preserving your smile for life. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case, and keeping up with excellent dental health often means receiving cosmetic or restorative treatment to fix and improve one or more teeth. In severe cases, a tooth may be too compromised to restore, even with advanced dental treatment, and therefore, it must be extracted.
The Point of Tooth Extraction
Preservation is the key to your dental care, and when a tooth cannot be saved, preserving the rest of your oral health requires removing it so your dentist can replace it with a more functional prosthesis. To that end, some of the most common reasons for tooth extraction include:
- Severely infected teeth – Tooth infection, or tooth decay, is usually easy to treat with a tooth filling. In severe cases, root canal treatment may be needed. In extreme cases, however, decay can afflict too much of your tooth structure for your dentist restore. If this happens, then extracting the tooth may be the best way to restore your bite’s function and stop the infection from spreading beyond the tooth.
- Extensive tooth damage – When a tooth is cracked or fractured, it can often be restored with a lifelike dental crown. If there isn’t enough healthy, sturdy tooth structure left to support the crown, or if the tooth’s root is fractured or broken, then removing and replacing the tooth may be the better option.
- Teeth with no periodontal support – Gum disease (or periodontal disease) erodes the gums and jawbone that support your teeth. When it’s left untreated, gum disease can leave one or more of your teeth without enough support, causing them to fall out or require extraction due to shifting.
Find Out if Your Tooth Should Be Extracted
If your tooth can’t be fixed with a custom restorative treatment, then extracting and replacing it may be the best idea. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, call Gentle Smiles in Dallas, TX, today at 972-329-7645 (972-329-SMILE).