My dentist wants to pull my non-impacted iwsdom teeth in his office and not at a!
Question:
My dentist wants to pull my non-impacted iwsdom teeth in his office and not at an oral surgeon. Is this safe?
Answers:
A dentist can do non-impacted extractions.
I used to work at the Oral Surgery Unit at the Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City, and we have both general dentists and oral surgeons on-staff. This is how they usually route the extraction cases-- Non-surgicals go to the GPs and the surgicals go to the OMFSes.
General practice dentists are very well-trained in doing non-surgical extractions (i.e. extractions that do not require cutting away gum and drilling away bone).
Oral surgeons are very well-trained in doing surgical extractions (i.e. extractions that requires cutting away gum and drilling away bone, such as bony-impacted wisdom teeth) and other oromaxillofacial surgery such as sinus lifts, orthognathic surgery, etc.
If your dentist feels an extraction is too complicated, he will refer you to an oral surgeon. If it is a non-complex straight non-surgical extraction, any general-practice dentist can handle it.
If you don't follow the post-op instructions, you are just as susceptible to dry sockets and infections even if the tooth was pulled by an oral surgeon.
Hope this helps.