Oral Surgery In Dedham

What Is Oral Surgery?

Oral surgery deals with medical procedures involving the teeth, jaw, or gums which are performed by an oral maxillofacial surgeon or a general dentist. Your dentist is likely to refer you to an oral surgery specialist for more complex procedures. Common oral surgery procedures include:

Tooth extractions
Gum grafts
Dental implants
Bone grafts
Surgery to treat sleep apnea

To schedule oral dental surgery such as dental implants, alveoloplasty, bone grafts or sinus lifts, contact us at Digital Dental Studio in Dedham, MA by calling (781) 471-7934. Schedule a consultation with Dr. Anna Vishart today.

Am I A Candidate For Oral Surgery?

Not everyone is a good candidate for oral surgery. An ideal candidate would be in overall good oral health, meaning they have no signs of tooth decay, cavities, or gum disease. Factors that don’t make you a good candidate for oral surgery include having oral health problems such as tooth decay and gum disease.

Certain medical conditions which increase your risk of gum disease or negatively affect healing also make you a less than ideal candidate. If you’re an avid smoker, you are not a good candidate for oral surgery because smoking negatively impacts your healing and is likely to dislodge blood clots and lead to a dry socket.

To be considered a good candidate for dental implants, it’s also important to have adequate bone density and jaw structure or you could need to receive bone grafting before you can receive dental implants.

Types of Oral Surgery

Bone Grafts - When a patient is lacking adequate bone density, an oral surgeon can remove bone from somewhere else in the body and place it in the jawbone to act as additional support. This may be necessary for some patients receiving dental implants who do not have enough jaw bone density to support the implants.

Sinus Lifts - A sinus lift is a type of bone graft performed on patients who have suffered from bone loss and no longer have adequate jaw bone to support dental implants. When a patient is missing teeth near the sinuses, at the back of the jaw, a bone graft is taken from somewhere else in the body and inserted into the sinus wall. The sinus wall is a thin wall of bone that separates the sinuses from the mouth. The procedure is performed by lifting the sinus membrane to insert the bone into the floor of the sinuses. Osseointegration will then occur over months and the bone will become fused with the jawbone.

Alveoloplasty - An alveoloplasty is a procedure in which the jawbone is smoothed and reshaped following a tooth extraction to prepare the empty socket to receive an artificial tooth replacement.

Oftentimes after a tooth has been extracted, the healed socket becomes too bumpy or uneven to receive a tooth replacement. One solution is to smooth the jawbone by making an incision into the gums and contouring the jaw with a dental drill or chisel.

The jawbone will then be stitched up. This procedure allows for the jawbone to successfully receive a tooth replacement. Alveoloplasty may be performed at the same time as the tooth extraction or after the extraction site has healed.