Tooth root extraction process

Nowadays, many people have to have their teeth extracted due to various dental diseases, either because of saw teeth or bacterial infection. Extracting the remaining tooth roots helps protect normal teeth and is also for the health of the patient. However, there are many things to pay attention to when extracting tooth roots. You must not be careless. If it is not handled properly, it may cause various adverse situations, and some people may even experience heavy bleeding.

Reasons for tooth extraction

It is very common for teeth to be broken during extraction. The reasons for this are, on the one hand, improper force used by the doctor during extraction, or unsatisfactory or incorrect placement of the forceps or dental elevators; on the other hand, the tooth crown is severely damaged by tooth decay and cavities, which increases the brittleness of the tooth, such as dead pulp teeth and teeth that have undergone root treatment; thirdly, the shape of the tooth root varies, resulting in adhesion of the tooth to the surrounding bone tissue.

If you suspect that a tooth root has not been removed cleanly, do not handle it casually at home, because there is already blood clot in the extraction socket, and casual handling can easily cause bleeding or infection in the wound. It is recommended to take an X-ray as soon as possible to confirm the diagnosis and continue treatment to remove it as cleanly as possible. Otherwise, the broken tooth root can easily hinder the healing of the tooth extraction wound, causing obvious pain and swelling, and sometimes develop into a chronic inflammatory lesion, causing infection in the tooth extraction wound or other parts of the body.

It should be noted that sometimes in some cases, broken roots do not need to be treated. Whether the remaining roots should be extracted again depends mainly on the location and size of the remaining roots. If the patient is weak and the operation to remove the broken roots is complicated, extraction can be postponed; some broken roots are relatively small, and only the apical area is broken, and there is no inflammation itself, so they can be left unextracted, because the broken roots in this case can exist for a long time, will not cause inflammation or infection, and will not cause wound healing; if the broken root is in a bad position, close to the submandibular alveolar nerve canal, and the length does not exceed 2mm, you can consider not extracting it; the broken roots of maxillary molars may enter the maxillary sinus during the extraction process and cause inflammation of the maxillary sinus. In this case, the broken roots without infection should be handled with caution, and extraction can be postponed or temporarily retained; if the broken roots of mandibular wisdom teeth are too deeply buried, too much alveolar bone needs to be chiseled away during extraction, which may affect the mandibular second molar. At this time, extracting the broken roots is not worth the cost, so you can consider retaining them.

In some cases, root cutting is done intentionally by doctors in order to damage the jawbone tissue as little as possible during the tooth extraction process. When encountering some tooth roots with curved or deformed root apexes, especially mandibular wisdom teeth, the only option is to retain them if it is inconvenient to extract them. Forced extraction requires the removal of a considerable portion of the jawbone.

Sometimes, the bone substance licked by the tongue after tooth extraction may not be a broken root, but may be the marginal ridge of the alveolar bone. The alveolar bone is the part of the jawbone that surrounds the tooth root. It supports and fixes the teeth. After the tooth is extracted, the marginal ridge becomes sharp and feels like a broken root. This requires that the doctor should take appropriate measures according to the actual situation of the extraction wound after tooth extraction, and make some appropriate adjustments to the high alveolar septum and sharp alveolar socket edge, or suture the gums if the tooth extraction trauma is relatively large. This can avoid the high and sharp alveolar septum and alveolar ridge from irritating the gums and causing obvious pain.

In short, small, short, non-infected, and non-loose broken roots generally do not cause too many problems. The broken roots remaining in the jawbone may be slowly absorbed or gradually expelled over time.

The process of tooth root extraction

Preparation work in advance: disinfection, anesthesia, separation of gums, loosening, extraction, and gauze compression to stop bleeding.

Before extracting a tooth root, the doctor will usually ask if the patient has any medical conditions. If there is no special disease, the doctor will first inject anesthetic into the patient and separate the gums. Generally, the tooth root will be loosened with a splint, then pulled out with tooth extractor forceps, and then the residue in the alveolar socket will be scraped off with a scraper. The patient will bite the hemostatic cotton and spit it out after 40 minutes. After three months, it is recommended to have dentures or dental implants.

Precautions

You should not rinse your mouth immediately after extracting a tooth root, do not lick the wound with your tongue, and do not touch it with your fingers. After 2 hours, when the blood clot has coagulated better, you can eat. Generally, semi-liquid diet and soft food are appropriate. Do not chew on the side where the tooth was extracted. Rinse your mouth gently after eating to prevent wound infection.