Oral Surgery & Dental Implants

WISDOM TEETH REMOVAL

Some times your jaw may not be large enough for wisdom teeth to come in, and they may become impacted and unable to break through your gums. Other instances your wisdom teeth may break partway through your gums, causing a flap of gum tissue to grow over them. Food and germs can get trapped under the flap and cause your gums to become red, swollen, and painful. More serious problems can develop from impacted teeth, such as infection, damage to other teeth and bone, or a cyst. One or more of your wisdom teeth may come in at an awkward angle, with the top of the tooth facing forward, backward, or to either side.

Wisdom tooth removal usually is effective in preventing:

Crowding of the back teeth.
A wisdom tooth becoming stuck in the jaw (impacted) and never breaking through the gums.
Red, swollen, and painful gums caused by a flap of skin around a wisdom tooth that has only partially come in.
Gum disease and tooth decay in the wisdom tooth, which may be harder to clean than other teeth, or in the teeth and jaw in the area of the wisdom tooth.

DENTAL IMPLANTS

Dental implants are artificial tooth replacements that were first developed half a century ago by a Swedish scientist named Per-Ingvar Branemark. Implants arose from the patient’s need to secure loose-fitting dentures. Since the advent of the implant, engineering and enhancements to the implant have enabled dentists to expand the implant’s usefulness, including the replacement of missing or lost teeth. Today, implant techniques provide a wide range of tooth replacement solutions including:

Single Tooth Replacement
Anterior Replacement
Posterior Replacement
Full Upper Replacement

Types of Implants

There are three main types of implants:

The root implant
The plate form implant
The subperiosteal implant

The root implant – by far, the most popular – is the most effective because it mirrors the size and shape of a patient’s natural tooth. This implant is often as strong as the patient’s original tooth. The implant or artificial root is placed into the jawbone under local anesthesia, then allowed to heal and integrate with the bone. Once the healing process is completed and the jawbone is attached to the implant, the patient returns to the dental office where the implant is fitted with the new tooth. This process generally takes anywhere from three to eight months.

The plate form implant is ideal in situations where the jawbone is not wide enough to properly support a root implant. The plate form implant is long and thin, unlike the root implant, and anchors into thin jawbones. It is inserted the same way as a root implant. In certain cases, the plate form implant is immediately fitted with the restoration without waiting for the healing process to run its course.

The subperiosteal implant is used when the jawbone has receded to the point where it can no longer support a permanent implant.

Implant as a Treatment Option

If the missing tooth space has no surrounding teeth, the dentist may decide an implant is the most appropriate treatment choice or option.

The treatment plan for a bridge usually requires two trips to your dentist. Specifically, it involves:

Numbing the surrounding teeth with a local anesthetic and cleaning plaque or decay.
Reducing the teeth so that the crowns can be fitted.
Making a mold or impression of the teeth in order to create a customized permanent impression
( this generally takes 1-2 weeks).
Fitting the patient with a temporary bridge until the permanent bridge is ready for placement.
Removing the temporary bridge and replacing it with the permanent one.
Adjusting the bridge for the proper bite and fit and permanently bonding it into the mouth.

Post Implant Care

Although proper oral hygiene is always recommended for maintaining good dental health, it is especially important when a patient has received a dental implant. Bacteria can attack sensitive areas in the mouth when teeth and gums are not properly cleaned, thus causing gums to swell and jaw bones to gradually recede. Recession of the jawbone will weaken implants and eventually make it necessary for the implant to be removed. Patients are advised to visit their dentists at least twice a year to ensure the health of their teeth and implants. Dental implants can last for decades when given proper care.

ORAL & MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY

Our Oral & Maxillofacial surgeon specializes in treating many diseases, injuries and defects in the head, neck, face, jaws and the hard and soft tissues of the Oral (mouth) and Maxillofacial (jaws and face) region. Our specialists focuses on several surgeries including:

Dentoalveolar surgery (difficult tooth extractions, extractions on medically compromised patients, bone grafting or preprosthetic surgery to provide better anatomy for the placement of implants, dentures, or other dental prostheses)
Surgery to insert osseointegrated (bone fused) dental implants and maxillofacial implants for attaching craniofacial prostheses and bone anchored hearing aids.
Corrective jaw surgery (orthognathic surgery), surgical treatment and/or splinting of sleep apnea, maxillomandibular advancement, genioplasty

Diagnosis and treatment of:

Benign pathology (cysts, tumors etc.)
Malignant pathology (oral & head and neck cancer) with (ablative and reconstructive surgery, microsurgery)
Congenital craniofacial malformations such as cleft lip and palate and cranial vault malformations such as craniosynostosis, (craniofacial surgery) chronic facial pain disorders temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders
Dysgnathia (incorrect bite), and orthognathic (literally “straight bite”) reconstructive surgery, orthognathic surgery, maxillomandibular advancement, surgical correction of facial asymmetry.