Teeth Extraction

An untreated tooth root infection can spread the infection throughout the body and lead to more serious health problems and even cost you your life. Our teeth and gums may be a small part of our body but, like other parts, neglecting your oral health needs impacts your overall health.

In tooth extraction, the tooth is removed from the dental socket area. The tooth is usually removed when there is some crack, decay, any other sort of damaging of the tooth. When the protection of the tooth becomes very difficult, then surgical extraction becomes necessary.

At R Dental Centre, we take every effort to preserve your natural teeth. But there are some instances when tooth extraction is the only option. When a tooth cannot be saved, it must be professionally removed through a procedure called tooth extraction.

What is a tooth root infection?

While a toothache can mean a lot of things, it’s one of the symptoms of tooth infection along with other signs that include:

• Throbbing pain reaching the jaw, neck, or ear
• Fever
• Swelling
• Pain or sensitivity when chewing or biting food
• Pain or sensitivity when eating hot and cold food or beverages
• Difficulty breathing or swallowing
• Foul smell and taste in your mouth

When patients disregard the symptoms mentioned above, the bacteria will reach the blood vessels and run through the bloodstream. The infection will spread throughout the body and cause life-threatening risk factors, especially for patients with underlying conditions.

What happens if a decayed tooth is not removed?

If it is not removed, it will harden and turn into tartar (calculus). The acids in plaque damage the enamel covering your teeth. It also creates holes in the tooth called cavities. Cavities usually do not hurt, unless they grow very large and affect nerves or cause a tooth fracture

How long can a dead tooth stay in your mouth?

A dead tooth can stay in your mouth for up to several days or months; however, keeping a dead tooth may lead to problems with your jaw and also result in the spreading of decay and bacteria to other teeth. Most dentists will recommend having the dead tooth extracted and replaced with a denture, bridge, or implant.

What happens if tooth decay is not treated on time?

It happens when bacteria in your mouth make acids that attack the enamel. Tooth decay can lead to cavities (dental caries), which are holes in your teeth. If tooth decay is not treated, it can cause pain, infection, and even tooth loss

What happens if a tooth infection is left untreated?

Complications. A tooth abscess won't go away without treatment. If the abscess ruptures, the pain may decrease significantly — but you still need dental treatment. If the abscess doesn't drain, the infection may spread to your jaw and to other areas of your head and neck.

Can a tooth infection make you sick?

Dental abscesses can also make you generally ill, with nausea, vomiting, fevers, chills, and sweats.

Effects of the spread of tooth root infection to your body

Once the disease-causing bacteria from your infected tooth enters the bloodstream, various health conditions may arise. Our body reacts differently when it’s attacked by bacteria and viruses. While some healthy individuals may go unharmed with untreated tooth infections, other patients may suffer from the following health conditions:

Bone infection

The first target of bacteria close to your infected tooth is the bones surrounding it, including your jaw bone. Bone infection or osteomyelitis is the inflammation of your bone marrow or bone due to the bacterial infection that ran through your bloodstream.

Severe cases of osteomyelitis are too painful and damage your bone structure. The worst case is if the bacteria win over your body and becomes life-threatening. The treatment involves a series of antibiotics and antifungal medications that can last from 4 to 6 weeks.

Infection of the blood vessels in your sinuses

Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis is the infection of the blood vessels in the sinuses resulting in a blood clot at the base of the brain. It is a rare and life-threatening disorder where the infection from the eyes, nose, ears, or teeth runs through the veins around your face and triggers more facial disorders.

It’s highly dangerous and should be treated immediately upon diagnosis. The best way to treat this disorder is to identify the source of infection through a series of tests and drain the disease-causing bacteria.

Skin and fat infection or cellulitis

Cellulitis is the infection of the inner layer of the skin next to fat. Cellulitis can occur in your face, breast, or anus. For facial cellulitis, there will be redness around your eyes, nose, and cheeks. It’s painful and can lead to sepsis, which is a life-threatening condition.

Cellulitis happens when the bacteria from your tooth root infection runs through the veins on your skin and spreads bacterial infection in the area. Mild cases of cellulitis in patients will take up to 2 weeks of oral antibiotics, and severe cases may end up with longer antibiotic treatments.

Parapharyngeal abscess

Parapharyngeal abscess is the infection found at the deep part of your neck near the hyoid bone or the bone near your adam’s apple. Swelling of the infected part can block the airway and cause patients to have difficulty breathing.

Signs of Parapharyngeal abscess include sore throat, fever, and swelling of the neck. It is diagnosed through a CT scan and treated surgically to drain the abscess in the throat. If left undetected, the abscess can flow down to the carotid artery and becomes more life-threatening.

Sepsis or blood infection

The most lethal effect of untreated tooth root infection is sepsis. It happens when the bacterial infection has spread through your entire bloodstream, and your immune system triggers a system-wide inflammation that can rupture your organs and block arteries.

When there is not enough blood flow in your body, your blood pressure will drop, and your kidneys, lungs, and liver will fail due to septic shock. Most of the medical conditions related to the spread of bacteria in the blood can lead to sepsis. Therefore, tooth root infection is a deadly condition and should never be taken lightly.

Types of Tooth Extractions

Simple Extraction:

Most teeth which are visible in the mouth can be removed by simple extraction. In this procedure the dentist numbs the area around the tooth with local anaesthesia, loosens the tooth and carefully removes it. It takes a few minutes to complete this treatment.

Surgical Extraction:

In complex cases Surgical extractions are done to remove the teeth that are not easily accessible. Such teeth that are difficult to remove must be taken out in pieces. At R Dental Centre the surgical removal of teeth is done by our experienced Oral Surgeons. A surgical extraction may be needed if:

• Teeth that have not fully erupted or still under the gum line
• Teeth with curved roots or unusually large roots
• Teeth that have broken off at the gum line.

Wisdom Tooth Extraction

Wisdom teeth, also called as ‘third molars’, can often cause problems during their eruption (breaking through the gum tissue). They may only erupt partially as there is less space in the jaw. They may be embedded completely in the jaw bone. They exert pressure on other teeth causing pain and hence have to be extracted. Also, they are difficult to clean as they are the last teeth and the tooth brush does not reach there.

So if infected it is best to extract them. At R Dental Centre we have a team of experienced oral surgeons for such extractions.

We have a variety of pain management techniques make all the extraction procedures comfortable and virtually a painless. They are completed in single visit and patients heal quickly after the procedure.

Treatment cost for tooth extraction depends on the difficulty of the case, type of anesthesia used and if the tooth is erupted or impacted. Factors that require more time and skill on part of the dentist influence the cost of the extraction. So it is difficult to predict the exact cost of tooth extraction.

Our expert dentists take special care and use the most advanced practices to make your extraction procedure comfortable and painless; yet at an affordable price. Schedule an appointment today to discuss your oral care needs and to find out if a tooth extraction is in your future.

Reasons for Tooth Extraction

• Severely decayed or infected teeth which cannot be treated by root canal
• To make space for orthodontic/ braces treatment
• Badly positioned teeth
• Broken teeth which cannot be restored
• Advanced gum disease that makes teeth loose
• Partially erupted or impacted wisdom teeth.