Oral Surgery

Damage to the jawbone can occur in areas where there are missing teeth. The jawbone can deteriorate and change the facial structure and make it unsuitable for a dental implant. Luckily, today’s technology can repair the inadequate bone in preparation for dental implants through bone grafting, restoring functionality and esthetic appearance.

Depending on the dental procedure, your dentist may determine that you only need a relatively small area to be numbed during surgery so that your visit is comfortable and pain-free. There are two kinds of numbing injections

When performing oral procedures that require numbing, dentists employ two kinds of local anesthesia, block injections, which numbs an entire region of your mouth, such as one side of your lower jaw, and infiltration injections, which numb a smaller area.

Oral pathology is the specialty of dentistry and discipline of pathology that deals with the nature, identification and management of diseases affecting the oral and maxillofacial regions (the mouth and jaw areas). The practice of oral pathology includes research and diagnosis of diseases using clinical, radiographic, microscopic, biochemical or other examinations.

Orofacial pain is caused by a number of clinical problems, including issues with the chewing muscles and joints. Orofacial pain can include migraines, headaches, muscle spasms, tooth pain and more. Your Oak Openings Dental dentist can use skills learned from the American Academy of Orofacial Pain (AAOP) to treat orofacial pain with several treatment options.

When a tooth is extracted, the procedure leaves behind a small hole where the tooth once was. This socket can be very sensitive at first, which is why your provider may recommend socket preservation to go along with your extraction.

A socket or alveolar ridge preservation procedure involves placing a bone graft into the socket, where the tooth once was. The goal of socket preservation is to improve the appearance of the remaining teeth and gums and to make the process of getting a dental implant at a later visit less complicated.

Soft tissue grafting is often necessary to combat gum recession. Periodontal disease, trauma, aging, over-brushing, and poor tooth positioning are the leading causes of gum recession, which can lead to tooth-root exposure in severe cases. Recent developments in dental technology have made soft tissue grafting more predictable and less intrusive.