Dental Procedures

Besides cleaning teeth and educating patients on oral health, there are four typical dental procedures. These include crowns, fillings, oral surgery, and root canals.

Crowns are used to repair teeth that may have decayed, broken, discolored, or that are not properly aligned. It is basically an artificial covering for a tooth, which can be made out of many different types of materials. Porcelain, acrylic, gold, or a combination of these items can be used to create a crown. It depends on where the crown is being placed within the mouth, as to what type of material will be used to create it. If done correctly, crowns should not be noticeable to anyone but yourself or your dentist. Your tooth will be reduced in size, so that when the crown is placed over it, it will not look awkward. Crowns should last somewhere around ten years, but depending on circumstances could last as few as five or as many as fifteen years.

One of the most common dental procedures is fillings. These are used when a person has a cavity. Fillings can be either silver or white, and both types have advantages and disadvantages. It depends upon the needs of the person at the time as to which type of filling a dentist will choose to use. Usually some type of local anesthetic is used to help with pain as the dentist extracts the area of decay and replaces it with the filling.

Oral surgery involves the removal of teeth. This can be done by a regular dentist, but at times may require the work of a specialist. Teeth, such as wisdom teeth, are often removed as their is little room for them left in the mouth. Sometimes, teeth may have decayed so badly that they are beyond repair and need to be removed as well. In addition, certain jaw-related issues may cause oral surgery to be necessary.

Root canals are a term of which make most people shudder. Instead of immediately removing teeth that are damaged or have nerves that are damaged, a root canal can be performed. In a root canal, pulp tissue is removed, which contains a nerve and blood supply. This will help alleviate the problem. The actual root canal is not typically what causes the unpleasant feeling most associate with the procedure, but instead the pain is actually usually due to the infection that has been going on in the pulp tissues.