Dental surgeries available at Light Dental Studios:
Extractions:
Extractions are done for many reasons in dentistry and we do them all at Light Dental Studios. This includes wisdom teeth (yes, impacted wisdom teeth, too), baby teeth, and teeth that are no longer restorable due to decay, fracture, or gum disease. Patients that need permanent teeth extracted may desire future replacement with an implant, bridge, or partial denture. Typically for implants, we recommend bone grafting at the time of extraction (see below).
Bone Grafting:
Bone grafting is usually done as a precursor or in conjunction to dental implant placement. When a tooth is extracted, the bone supporting the tooth will resorb, on average, to about 60% of it's original bone height. A dental implant often requires and will be more esthetic when we get back 100% of our bone height. We achieve this by grafting the extraction socket immediately after the tooth is removed. This graft will take 3-6 months to fully mature before the implant can be placed. This does not add much in the way of time or post-operative discomfort.
Sinus Lift:
When a patient desires an implant to replace a missing back tooth in the upper arch, it is possible the sinus (an air space in the upper jaw) may dip down too low into the jawbone to give adequate height for the implant to be placed. In instances like this, a bone graft may be placed in the base of the sinus to give us enough bone height to support a dental implant. Sometimes this can be done the same day the implant is placed. This is a procedure typically only done in specialists offices, but we offer it here to save our patients about half the cost.
Pathology Biopsy:
If an area is deemed "suspicious" during your oral cancer exam, and it does not heal, we will perform one of two biopsies. A biopsy is a removal of a portion or all of the sample tissue. This tissue sample is then sent to a pathology lab to analyze the cells for dangerous changes within the tissues. The first option of biopsy is what we call a brush biopsy and is useful for changes to the surface tissues. This is an easy procedure that involves a slight scraping of the tissue with an instrument that looks like a mini pipe cleaner. The second biopsy is surgical removal and will involve anesthetic and may require sutures (stitches). This type of biopsy is used more for soft tissue swellings. If any sign of oral cancer is detected in the biopsy, we will refer you to a highly trained professional to have the remainder of the lesion removed.
