Routine Oral Surgical Procedures

Oral surgery is usually thought of as a last resort, desperate attempt to save your teeth, and sometimes that is exactly what it is. But usually, it just means that you have a problem that cannot be fixed by treating just the teeth, and that the soft tissues need to be dealt with, too.

The two perhaps lightest and most routine oral surgical procedures are periodontal curettage and apical tooth resection. These scary sounding medical procedures are actually nothing special, and all their fear inducing power can be dispelled with a little explanation.

Oral surgery procedures: periodontal curettage

The word “curette” means to scoop in French. Curettage is a surgical procedure in which defective tissue is scooped away using a curette, a special kind of sharp spoon-like surgical implement. When periodontitis is near the surface and is easily removed, sometimes the most sensible thing to do is to simply remove the tissue, especially if there is enough gingival connective tissue left to hold the teeth in place and make sure that they are working properly. In these cases, the quickest and best solution is to use a periodontal curettage.

The procedure takes around 15 minutes, happens under local anaesthetic, and is completely safe and painless. The area may be a bit sore afterwards, but any swelling or discomfort should dissipate within 2 days at most. Most people don’t even need to take a day off of work after the procedure.

Oral surgery procedures: apical tooth resection

When a tooth is quite severely infected, the infection gets to the tooth roots and starts to live in there. This is usually dealt with using root canal treatment. But sometimes the infection can eat right through the tooth root and start affecting the tissues underneath the tooth root. A cyst can form, or just some nasty gunk can gather there and cause periodontitis. In these cases, the dentist will open a little window underneath the tooth root and expose the area. The tip or apex of the tooth root is removed, and the nasty gunk is drained. The area is then sewn up. Usually, swelling and discomfort continue for around 2 days, but with a prescription of painkillers, you should feel nothing at all of the entire procedure.

Oral surgery aftercare instructions

After any oral surgical procedure, you will get aftercare instructions. These are not polite requests; these must be kept to the word! If you do not keep the instructions, you risk infection, extreme pain and even the stability of your tooth. Make sure you talk to your dentist about your aftercare instructions, and that you understand everything perfectly.