WHAT IS ORAL SURGERY?

The term “oral surgery” may conjure up images of hospitals and operating rooms when you think of it. This is a common misconception about the term. Oral surgery mobile al actually is a way to describe many dental procedures, most of which can be done in your dentist’s office. The length of the procedures and the time for recovery vary depending on the procedure itself. Here is a list of some of the most common forms of oral surgeries.

Tooth Extraction

Getting a tooth pulled is the most common form of surgery that most people don’t even realize is actually surgery. There are many reasons for a tooth extraction. If your tooth is impacted or partially erupted, if your teeth are beyond repair from either decay, disease, or trauma, if primary teeth have failed to fall out, if you have an orthodontic treatment plan that requires teeth to be removed in order to make space, or if you have to have your wisdom teeth out are all reasons to have teeth extracted. The invasiveness of the procedure will depend on the procedure itself.

For example, having a simple extraction of a diseased tooth may require local anesthetic and a few minutes, whereas having impacted wisdom teeth removed may require you to be put under general anesthesia. In both cases, the recovery time usually lasts a few days to a few weeks.

Dental Implants

Dental implants are growing in popularity as a way to replace missing teeth. In the past, dentures that were not permanently installed in your mouth typically replaced missing teeth. Dentists nowadays are increasingly turning to implants to replace these teeth. This surgery requires the titanium implant being inserted into your jaw. This procedure typically requires general anesthesia. The recovery time for this procedure is similar to the recovery time for tooth extraction.

Corrective Jaw Surgery

This form of surgery, also known as orthognathic surgery, is a more invasive procedure. An oral surgeon usually does this type of procedure. There are many reasons that you may require corrective jaw surgery. Some of the reasons are having incorrect jaw positioning, an incorrect bite, if you clench your jaw and/or grind your teeth (this is usually done in extreme cases where the clenching or grinding is causing tooth damage), if you have difficulty talking, chewing, eating, or opening and closing your mouth, or if you have experienced facial trauma. Because this type of surgery is usually much more invasive, the recovery time is typically longer.

Disease Treatment or Detection

Oral cancer is much more common than most people realize. Nearly 8,000 people die every year from it and nearly 34,000 people are diagnosed with it every year. Dentists are trained to detect the cancer early. If your dentist discovers something suspicious and does further tests and those tests come back positive, you may require oral surgery. If the disease is caught early enough, surgery can usually do the trick. The more invasive the cancer is, the more invasive the surgery typically required. The recovery time for this surgery varies greatly and depends heavily on the extensiveness of the surgery.

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