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Specialities And Treatments |
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ORAL SURGERY Oral surgery involves small operations carried out inside the mouth and lips and may involve the hard and soft tissues. These include extractions of buried roots and wisdom teeth where some bone removal may be required. Soft tissue lesions such as cysts and polyps can be easily removed with simple surgery under local anaesthetic. Soft tissues may need to be reshaped surgically in order to facilitate specialist treatment such as orthodontics. Often if implants are to be placed following extraction, teeth may need to be removed using special sensitive and atraumatic techniques to preserve bone. In areas where there is insufficient bone available for implant placement, simple grafting procedures may be used to increase bone volume, for example to the sinuses in order to increase bone volume in the upper jaw. In cases of extreme complexity patients may occasionally need to be referred to a Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon for specialised bone grafting procedures and nerve repositioning prior to implant placement. All operations are carried out under local anaesthesia together with some form of sedation as necessary. Wounds are usually closed with sutures which are normally removed after about seven days. Some post-operative discomfort is usual but is controlled with analgesics such as paracetamol and ibuprofen. A full instruction sheet can be downloaded. There is a dedicated operating suite at Latchford and Latchford, fully equipped for oral surgery and implant treatments. Post operative instructions following Dental Extractions You have just had one or more teeth extracted. This has been done with great skill and care. We hope that you heal without any discomfort or complication. However, the success of the treatment depends on how well you look after yourself and your mouth from now on. Please read these notes carefully and keep them for future reference during the healing period. Immediately after extraction, the wound fills with blood. You have been asked to bite on a pack to help stop the bleeding. A clot forms and slowly grows into new tissue. In the early stages this can easily be lost, delaying healing and introducing infection. Care is required not to disturb it. For the next 24 hours Do not disturb the clot by rinsing or brushing. Avoid eating and drinking on that side. Take it easy for a while. Avoid exercise and excitement as these tend to increase blood pressure and the possibility of bleeding. Smoking and alcohol delay healing and should be avoided, especially in the first day. From the Next Day Keep the socket clean by rinsing well with hot salt water (1 teaspoon of salt in a tumbler of hot water). Start brushing around the socket when it is not painful to do so. Sutures Sometimes we use stitches or sutures to close the wound and keep the edges together. If we have done this we will have told you, we usually use dissolving sutures but often make arrangements for these to be removed between five and ten days later. Bleeding The wound may start to bleed again. If it does, make up a pack from a tissue or handkerchief that fits closely to the socket. Bite on this for at least 30 minutes. Remove the pack very carefully taking care not to pull the clot from the socket. If the bleeding starts again then repeat the process but for at least twice as long. You may need to repeat this several times. Analgesics Pain and swelling are occasional problems but it is impossible to anticipate in which situations these will occur. It is not necessarily associated with the complexity of the procedure. If you do experience discomfort as the injection wears off then you can take Ibuprofen or Aspirin. This will also help to reduce any swelling. |
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