Surgical Wisdom Tooth Extraction

andrei

Has anyone had (or heard of) laser surgery for wisdom tooth removal?

welshdent

andrei wrote: »

Has anyone had (or heard of) laser surgery for wisdom tooth removal?

No .... you cant grip a tooth with a laser .....

IF and I mean IF you need to raise a flap then you can use a soft tissue laser to do this but that isnt a wisdom tooth thing. Its a general dental surgery thing. All you would be doing is replacing a scalpel for a laser though so there would be no real benefit. You are still cutting the gum open. Maybe less bleeding but then thats not really an issue on the whole for the treatment itself.

andrei

welshdent wrote: »

No .... you cant grip a tooth with a laser .....

IF and I mean IF you need to raise a flap then you can use a soft tissue laser to do this but that isnt a wisdom tooth thing. Its a general dental surgery thing. All you would be doing is replacing a scalpel for a laser though so there would be no real benefit. You are still cutting the gum open. Maybe less bleeding but then thats not really an issue on the whole for the treatment itself.

Thanks for your reply. The reason for this is that I know laser surgery is less traumatic, in general. I also remember that while being a kid I had a wisdom tooth removed to get room for my teeth to be straightened which hadn't come out yet.. and it hurt really bad, and it took a long time to heal.. I was reading up on laser surgery in dentistry (I'm intellectually curious).. And some say that for wisdom teeth which haven't come out yet a laser may minimise the trauma..

welshdent

The incision would be less traumatic however I think the incision is probably the least traumatic aspect of a surgical extraction so overall I doubt there would be any real savings. Financially speaking you would need o charge a lot to use it as a laser costs thousands but the cost of a scalpel blade is peanuts

brook2jack

The least traumatic way to remove a wisdom tooth is to remove bone in a way that doesn't cause heating up. Drilling is not ideal but much less traumatic than a laser which generates quite some heat and is virtually useless on hard tissues. The least traumatic way is ( honestly) with a hammer and chisel as there is no heat involved. Many years ago I saw conscious patients in a Polish clinic all having their wisdom teeth out this way. However it was before the breakup of the soviet union and they were stoical beyond belief.

The best way to have uneventful healing is don't smoke, don't drink alcohol post op and keep the area meticulously clean.

euronorris

An update for you:

I had my tooth removed last Thursday morning and it went very well.

I had the senior surgeon doing it. He spoke to me in English at each point to explain what he was doing, and then switched back to Dutch to explain to the younger (student?) surgeon what he was doing. It was all over very, very quickly. 20 minutes in all, including prep, injections etc and has healed very quickly and nicely this time.

I was giving the Fridge a thorough clean on Sunday! And back at work on Monday, no problem. They did give me 600mg of Ibuprofen to take 3 times a day though, and I don't remember being prescribed anything as strong as that last time. Maybe that helped.

Oh, and they also missed my nerve completely (there was a risk of them cutting it and leaving me permanently numb), which is great!

Just wanted to let you all know, thank you for your earlier help, and hopefully put to rest any fears that others may have for this procedure.