Tooth extraction is the kind of thing that dental patients hate to have recommended and hate to follow through on. Unless that tooth is causing you severe pain, it’s easy to put off a procedure you’re not sure is really necessary. If you have a tooth you’re still hanging on to, consider the following reasons to go ahead and get it done.
Keeping Your Options Open
Practices like implantology in dentistry have made it possible to screw a replacement tooth right into place. But for that to work, the bone left behind by the pulled tooth has to be in good shape, and the longer you let that tooth sit and fester, the weaker the bone will be. Hanging on to a tooth whose time has come limits your options for cosmetic dentistry and may leave you with unattractive gaps or wobbly bridges.
Maintaining Your Oral Health
One bad tooth, like one bad apple, can spoil the whole bunch. Allowing an infected tooth to hang out indefinitely with healthy teeth risks making your whole mouth sick. Bad breath, mouth pain, unpleasant dental visits, and a whole lot of uncomfortable drilling and pulling are sure to follow. Handling the problem while it’s still relatively contained is just good sense.
Getting It Over With
You may want to believe that the tooth in question is just fine and doesn’t need to go anywhere, but there’s likely a seed of doubt in your mind. You can’t help but wonder … when is it going to start causing problems? Will it be when you’re on vacation? On a cruise? Preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime event that could be ruined by sudden stabbing tooth pain? There’s something to be said for getting that tooth out while the getting is good.
Put yourself out of your suspense and yank that tooth. You may find that the whole experience isn’t as bad as you feared, and you’ll wonder why you waited so long.
