Emergency Dental Work: Topics, Tricks and Tips

Posted on: 28 July 2015

If you have an extremely rotten tooth that needs to be extracted, you have two choices. You can go to the dentist, or you can go to the oral surgeon. To help you decide which option is right for you, take a look at these questions?

1. Is the dentist willing to remove your tooth?

In some cases, dentists will simply refer you to an oral surgeon. The dentist may not have the experience, tools or malpractice insurance to make that procedure possible. If the dentist says he or she is not able to do it, believe him or her and go to an oral surgeon. However, if the dentist is willing to do the extraction, there are still other points to consider.

2. Is most of the tooth decayed and broken off?

Any dentist can easily extract a tooth if the whole thing is still there, but if much of the tooth has rotted and broken off, it is harder to get. The procedure may take longer and may require special tools to extract all of the broken fragments. In this case, you also may want to opt for an oral surgeon unless your dentist is confident about handling it.

3. Do you want to go to sleep during the procedure?

When you go to a dentist to have a tooth extracted, you typically get nitrous oxide to relax you, and you get Novocaine as a local anesthetic to numb your mouth. If you want to avoid the risks of going under general anesthesia, this may be the best option for you.

However, if you have fears about going to the dentist or if you are especially intolerant of pain, you may prefer to go under for the extraction. In this case, you may prefer to see an oral surgeon who works with general anesthesia rather than a dentist who does not.

4. Do you need to get lots of work done at once?

If you are only going in for a single extraction, a dentist may be ideal, but if you need a lot of work done all at once, you may be more comfortable going under general anesthesia and having an oral surgeon handle it all at the same time.

5. Do you want to pay for the work with your medical insurance?

Although dentists and oral surgeons do similar work, when it comes to your insurance policy, these professionals may be treated differently.

Dentists are covered under dental insurance, but oral surgeons attend medical school as well as dental school. In some cases, they even do their work out of a hospital. Because of that, you can sometimes cover oral surgery through your medical insurance. From a financial level, that may be preferable.

To learn more, contact a company like Comprehensive Dental Care.