What comes to mind when you think about taking care of your teeth? If you're like most people, the first things that probably come to mind are regular cleaning and fillings.

However, there's an entire world of specialized care that works with general maintenance to keep your teeth looking good, and it's a world inhabited by oral surgeons.

Oral surgeons are surgical specialists who handle difficult cases well beyond the scope of general dentistry. They are often called in when standard-issue care simply won't cut it for a serious oral issue.

This blog discusses five essential roles that oral surgeons play in maintaining and restoring dental health.

1. Complicated Extraction and Wisdom Teeth Extraction

An oral surgeon is typically who you will be referred to for difficult tooth extractions, in particular wisdom teeth. This includes cases where the teeth are severely decayed or broken, growing under the gum line, or impacted completely within the jawbone.

They can extract teeth, make incisions when necessary, and remove any growth obstructing the mouth. Oral surgeons are also knowledgeable about working around sensitive nerves, blood vessels and sinuses, which a regular dentist may not be competent enough to do.

What sets them apart is that they can operate on complicated cases where:

Several teeth need to be extracted.

You have a medical condition that makes it dangerous to remove a tooth.

You have a severe dental infection.

They don't just do the extraction itself; they're also trained to manage expected/unexpected issues and help with post-surgical recovery. This includes maintaining bone structure for future implants, controlling blood loss in blood disorder patients, and providing special care for immune-suppressed patients.

That said, when selecting an oral surgeon, make sure they work in dental centers like Smiling Molar, offering high-quality dental services. Smiling Molar Dental is a leading cosmetic dentistry practice. Located in Plainfield, New Jersey, they provide comprehensive dental services to patients of all ages in a pleasant and welcoming environment.

2. Provide Teeth Whitening and Veneer Placement Services

General dentists usually do teeth whitening and veneer placements, but oral surgeons can better handle more complicated cases that require surgery. This might include cases where they are dealing with a patient suffering from significant enamel erosion or structural tooth damage.

In such a scenario, veneers cannot be properly placed before oral surgery. You'll require teeth to be thoroughly reshaped through a special surgery to guarantee a strong foundation for veneers. This is an exercise that's mostly reserved for oral dentists.

In addition, your oral surgeon will address any existing oral health problems, such as gum disease or bone loss, that could interfere with the success of a cosmetic procedure.

Oral surgeons possess extensive knowledge of the anatomy and function of the mouth and will perform these modifications expertly to enhance oral health and aesthetics.

3. Dental Implant Surgery and Bone Grafting

Oral surgeons are the foundation of any dental implant success. They do more than insert implants, extending into evaluating bone density and establishing whether additional procedures are necessary.

As dental implant specialists, they also understand the sensitive interrelationship between periodontal tissues, bone, and implant integration success.

Using high-tech imaging, an oral surgeon can map out the implant placement without invading other vital anatomy and ensure the implant is in an optimal position for function and aesthetics.

An oral surgeon may also perform more advanced bone grafting procedures to help anchor an implant or create a solid foundation for implant placement. This is usually a case when a patient does not have enough natural bone to support the implant.

4. Treat Oral Diseases and Pathology

Oral and maxillofacial surgeons play a key role in diagnosing and treating various jaw, face and mouth-related infections. They're often at the initial point of contact when diagnosing life-threatening diseases such as oral cancer, cysts, and tumors.

With pathology training, they're in a position to best detect early, minor disease symptoms that might be overlooked in routine dental examinations. They can also remove suspicious tissue, conduct biopsies, and collaborate with medical providers when dealing with malignancies.

Furthermore, an oral surgeon's role is to treat the immediate problem and develop long-term management strategies to prevent recurrence and maintain overall oral health. They're also instrumental in helping patients:

Recover from surgical interventions

Ensuring proper healing

Monitoring for any signs of complications.

5. Provide Emergency Dental Care

Dental emergencies (i.e., knocked-out teeth, severe infections, orofacial trauma) require immediate and specialized treatment. Oral surgeons are well-trained and equipped to handle these situations.

For example, in the case of avulsed (knocked-out) teeth, an oral surgeon's prompt intervention can increase the chances that a reimplanted tooth will be successfully retained.

They're also skilled at treating severe infections, particularly if they spread to the surrounding facial region. Accident-related facial damages may comprise complex breaks or soft fractures. Oral surgeons can realign and stabilize jaws, wire together broken jaws, and set fractured cheekbones.

Certain accidents also affect teeth. Oral surgeons can remove badly injured teeth and insert dental implants or perform reconstructive jaw surgery to reestablish the jaw's structure.

Final Thoughts

Oral surgeons are not simply dental clinicians who perform operations but are part of a larger group of medical providers. They combine surgical expertise with intimate acquaintance with face and mouth structures and disease processes.

What they do reaches out and touches lives in a manner that extends well beyond the dentist's chair – from rebuilding confidence through face rebuilding to allowing people to sleep easier at night.

Before you consider having your wisdom teeth removed, getting a dental implant, or treating that recurrent oral infection, you must first understand the role of an oral surgeon in dental health and whether they are the right professional to approach.