While many people associate tooth extractions with adults who have neglected their oral hygiene, the unfortunate fact is that many children will need to have teeth removed. While this can result from a variety of factors, many may question why a child would need a tooth extraction, especially if it is a baby tooth that should fall out on its own anyway. Here’s a brief guide to children’s tooth extractions and the benefits they can bring.
Tooth Decay Can Spread
Children today are bombarded with advertisements peddling sugary candies and sodas that seem like recipes for nasty oral infections. Since children are not known for being enthusiastically compliant with proper oral hygiene practices in the first place, some kids develop severe tooth decay.
Tooth decay is a dental infection that will only get worse without professional intervention, and it can even spread to the other teeth if it goes unaddressed for too long. While this infection can usually be addressed with a filling if it is caught early, advanced decay will eventually lead to the loss of the tooth. Tooth extraction can sometimes be the only way to prevent further tooth loss.
Some Kids Need More Room for Orthodontic Treatment
Many children live with misalignments that can be addressed with traditional metal braces or another orthodontic method, but some kids do not have enough room in their mouths for their teeth to be properly straightened. This can happen due to severe crowding resulting from the teeth being especially large or the mouth being particularly small, and tooth extraction may be necessary to allow a patient to chew properly, prevent tooth decay and other oral infections, and resolve the many other issues that can arise from a poor bite alignment.
Sometimes a Tooth Refuses to Come Out
In some cases, a child’s baby tooth doesn’t fall out when it should, and leaving it in can lead to pain, crowding, and other bite alignment issues. In these cases, it may be best to extract the stubborn tooth so the adult one underneath it can emerge properly.
While tooth extraction can effectively resolve many dental health issues, it will only be used if every other option has been exhausted. You can rest assured that, if your dentist recommends extraction, the procedure is in your best interest.
About the Author
Dr. Roxanne Clarke earned her dental degree at the University of Maryland’s School of Dentistry before completing a two-year specialty program in pediatric dentistry at the same school. She is proud to be a member of the American Dental Association and the Maryland State Dental Association. Her office in Towson offers pediatric general, restorative, and emergency dentistry as well as tooth extraction services. To learn more about how tooth extraction may be able to help your child, contact her office online or dial (443) 608-5005.