When Is It Time To Extract A Tooth?

As you might imagine, removing a tooth is the last possible action you can take when it comes to dental care. Centuries ago, tooth removal was essentially the only option available when you were suffering from so much as a cavity, but these days dentists have a variety of options that let them save your tooth even when the pulp at the center gets infected and puts your overall health at risk.

At the same time, there are occasions when it’s best to simply remove a tooth and be done with it. Here are a few examples of when tooth extraction is a better option than a crown replacement or a root canal:

1. Critical Tooth Damage

You’ve probably seen the classic image of someone hit in the jaw so hard that a tooth flies out. However, while this can and does happen, it’s rarely so clean that it dislodges a whole tooth, root and all. Instead, it’s far more likely that the tooth will chip or break, and while a dentist can repair a little damage with a composite resin, a porcelain veneer, or a new crown, if there’s damage to the root then the whole tooth (or what’s left) will have to be extracted.

2. Impacted Teeth

Although it’s the job of the dentist and the orthodontist to carefully monitor children’s teeth to make sure they grow in straight and correct them if they aren’t, sometimes teeth come in at completely the wrong angle or wind up angling towards each other as time goes by. When this happens, it’s called impacted teeth, and if correction is no longer an option then one or more of the affected teeth should definitely come out.

3. Cost

Ultimately, replacement crowns and root canals can be expensive procedures. Not every dental plan covers them, and not everyone has dental coverage in the first place. Although it’s best to have at least some part of your original tooth in place so that you can continue eating normally, a basic extraction is at the very least cheaper than the alternatives.

Overall, teeth today are lasting longer and staying in better shape than the teeth of our grandparents, but extractions still have a place in modern dentistry. And fortunately for everyone involved, the procedure has grown much more refined than the days of whiskey, pliers, and a hammer.