Dr. Anupreet Kaur Choudhury

A healthy set of teeth is essential for good living. However teeth problems are widespread and you are susceptible to it at any age, at any time. Though there are medications available for tooth problems, sometimes extraction of the tooth remains the only plausible solution. 

You may have to undergo tooth extraction for multiple reasons. Some of them are:

1. Unaligned teeth
In case you are suffering from unaligned teeth, chances are that you may suffer from what in technical terms is known as "crowded mouth." In such a situation you have difficulty in eating as there is not enough room for the teeth in the mouth. Extraction of tooth, in this case, remains the only way to rectify it and align the teeth in a better fashion.

2. Infection
Sometimes if you suffer from a tooth infection, it tends to quickly spread to the pulp, affecting and damaging the blood vessels and different nerves. Though medications are available, if the intensity of the infection increases, extraction of tooth remains the only option.

Procedure

There are different steps that are involved in the extraction of teeth. They are:

1. Local anesthesia
Like all other surgeries, administering a local anesthesia is the first step. If you are undergoing a tooth extraction, the dentist or the surgeon will inject an anesthesia that will create numbness and soothe you of the ensuing pain.

2. Cutting away gum and bone tissues
After the anesthesia, the dentist will proceed to extract the infected tooth. In order to this, the doctor cuts away the gum and the tissues covering the tooth. After the root of the infected tooth has been exposed, the dentist would then with the help of forceps, sever it from the jaw.

After the surgery, you must observe certain precautions to expedite the recovery process. Some of them are:

1. Take painkillers
After the tooth extraction, the possibility of suffering from an ensuing pain is incredibly high. Therefore, in most cases the dentist prescribes certain painkillers and you must take them regularly.

2. Change the dressing
The operated area will be covered with bandages to preclude any infection. However, the dressing must be changed from time to time. If the same dressing remains for a long time, chances of an infection increase.

3. Complete rest
After the extraction, you must take complete rest and not engage in any form of physical activity.

4. Avoid certain foods
Just after the surgery, the operated area remains tender. Therefore, you must eat food that requires less effort to chew like soup, pudding, ice cream etc. You must also abstain from smoking and drinking for some time.

When a small cavity isn't treated in time, the tooth may get so badly decayed that normal filling cannot solve the problem. In such cases, your dentist will probably advise you to have a root canal. When performing a root canal, the dentist will remove the nerves and pulp within the tooth, clean the inside of the tooth and seal it. After this procedure your tooth will not sense anything and should be pain free. However in some cases, you may still experience pain after a root canal. There are four main causes of this pain.

Swelling of ligament around the tooth
One of the signs that you need a root canal is swelling of the gums. Even after the nerves and pulp within the tooth are removed, the ligaments around the infected tooth may still be swollen. This can take some time before the tissue is normal again. In most cases this is the cause for pain after a root canal procedure.   

Damaged tissue
Part of the root canal procedure is to clean the insides of the tooth. Here the dentist must be very careful to not go beyond the tooth. In some cases the file used to clean the tooth may go beyond the root and damage the tissue there. Another possibility is that the sealant used to fill the tooth may go beyond the root thus aggravating the tissue. This can take some time to heal and can cause pain.

Excess filling
After the tooth has been cleaned, the dentist fills the tooth with a sealant. If excessive sealant is filled in the tooth, it may become taller than the surrounding teeth. This makes you hit that tooth first when you close your jaw and puts extra pressure on it resulting in soreness and pain. Your dentists will need to remove the excess sealant to resolve this issue.

Phantom pain
Phantom pain is rare when it comes to root canals. This occurs when the nerve leading upto the tooth still behaves like it were connected to the tooth despite the nerve within the tooth being completely removed. The peripheral nerves will need to be treated to resolve this issue.

In most cases these events cannot be prevented. There is also no reason to expect that this is a symptom of your root canal being a failure. Stay in touch with your dentist and brush and floss your teeth regularly. You will soon notice the pain subsiding.