Every person has 28 teeth regularly, with the wisdom teeth even 32. We get the first milk teeth already in the 6th month, the first permanent tooth in the 6th year of life. These teeth fulfil many different tasks for us day after day.
They chop up our food, help us to speak and give us a sympathetic smile. Thus they faithfully perform their services over many years, but are also exposed to various influences, such as bacteria or solid food. Daily care is the feel-good program for our teeth so that we can keep them for as long as possible.
But sometimes, unfortunately, different triggers can lead to a tooth being affected by caries and becoming irreparable. In this case it must be extracted. This is called the extraction of a tooth. But how exactly does this happen and what do you have to consider?
Causes
Everyone has had to experience many tooth extractions. At first glance, this thought may not seem entirely plausible, but each of us has had milk teeth at one time or another, which were eventually replaced by permanent teeth. They either fell out on their own, were extracted by the dentist or you played around with them until you had the tooth in your hand.
This natural tooth loss is quite normal, whereas the loss of permanent teeth often has a cause of disease, namely caries. Tooth decay occurs when plaque is not removed from the teeth, bacteria are formed which produce lactic acid and thus attack the hard tooth substance. It continues to work its way through the tooth until it has completely destroyed it.
If treatment does not take place in time and the tooth can no longer be saved, extraction is the only way to prevent further damage to the masticatory system. Another cause can be a disease of the periodontium. The periodontium includes the tooth bone, the gingiva, the desmodont (root skin) and the root cement.
Due to various diseases of this retaining apparatus (gingivitis, periodontitis, etc.) the tooth can become loose and in some cases must be extracted. Furthermore, fractures in the area of the tooth root or external influences, such as an accident, can be indications for extraction.
If the dental nerve is affected by infection and can therefore no longer perform its function, extraction may also be considered. However, external factors do not always have to be the reason for the extraction of a tooth. Probably the best known and most widespread extraction is the removal of wisdom teeth.
This procedure is known to everyone and probably most of us have already had to undergo it. In this procedure the back teeth are removed. The wisdom teeth are remnants from the past, when man was still a hunter-gatherer and had a completely different way of eating.
Nowadays, however, we no longer need them, so they remain in the jaws of one person or are no longer genetically present in others. They may also break through, causing pain, so that they are extracted. In most cases this extraction is done as a precautionary measure to avoid later complications such as malpositioned teeth or inflammation.
This also addresses another reason for extraction, namely malpositioned teeth. In the course of a dental treatment, it can be concluded that certain teeth, due to their position, cause a lack of space and should be extracted as a precaution. Mostly this refers to the smaller posterior teeth or the 2s in the anterior region.
In the course of a prosthetic restoration, extraction may also be necessary in order to ensure the best possible restoration for the patient. The extraction of a tooth does not have to be limited to the oral cavity, but can also be considered useful if particularly serious diseases or tumors are to be combated. This includes people with lymphomas, leukemia, tumors or with transplantation intentions.
They may be undergoing chemotherapy or treatments that severely weaken the immune system. This also includes people with cardiovascular diseases. Even if irradiation must be carried out, in which the head area is also affected, tooth extraction can be carried out as a preventive measure.In these cases, there is a risk that even a simple infection in the area of the teeth can lead to a severe course of the disease, so that this risk is counteracted as a precautionary measure.
