Understanding when to get a dental extraction is important to your overall oral health. With modern dental techniques, dental extractions and other dental conditions can be successfully addressed and treated. Ultimately, your dentist would like to preserve as many of your natural teeth as possible with the help of corrective or restorative dentistry.

Generally, the average patient knows how to take good care of their teeth. They brush twice a day with fluoride toothpaste, and they regularly use dental floss. In addition, most people visit their dentists every six months to monitor for any oral health issues and participate in preventative dental care. It is during these appointments that your dentist may recommend having one or several teeth pulled if they become impacted, overcrowded, cracked, broken or infected.

Here are 3 signs you may need a dental extraction:

1. Impaction or Overcrowding

Impacted teeth are those that have grown or shifted into the wrong position, rendering them useless. If the teeth are too large to comfortably fit within the mouth, dentists call this condition “overcrowded.” Overcrowded teeth can prevent other teeth from erupting, so your dentist will remove them to give the remaining teeth more space. In some cases, dentists may perform a few extractions before fitting braces on a patient’s teeth to make sure that there is enough room for the essential teeth to move into place.

2. Damage

A tooth that has begun to decay can be treated in several ways, but sometimes, the decay is so extensive that these procedures cannot be done since the teeth are potentially unsalvageable. Teeth that have been severely broken or cracked are known as “damaged teeth,” and the dentist will opt to extract them.

3. Infection

If a decaying tooth is not treated, the decay can spread to the tooth’s pulp. This can be very dangerous because if the pulp becomes infected, the infection can spread from one tooth to another. Your dentist will usually recommend root canal therapy to treat the infection, but in some cases, the damage is so extensive that root canal treatments will not prove effective. For that reason, dentists suggest extracting the tooth.

Some patients may also be candidates for a tooth extraction if there is any potential risk of infection. Those undergoing chemotherapy, for example, will have weaker immune systems and be less able to fight dental infections if they have a cracked or broken tooth. Dentists are particularly concerned about patients such as these, so they will recommend pulling a tooth to avoid risking the patient’s oral health.

At Advanced Dental Care of Indiana we make every effort to provide you with the finest care and the most convenient financial options. To accomplish this, we work hand-in-hand with you to maximize your insurance reimbursement for covered procedures. Insurance plan participation can change periodically so if your insurance plan is not on the list please contact us to see if we accept your insurance.

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