Thursday, September 3, 2020

What is Pericoronitis?


We don’t take tooth extractions lightly at The Oyster Bay Family Dentists. Although we are expert prosthodontists, providing extensive dental and facial restorations, we only recommend tooth extractions when a patient’s health would be endangered otherwise. One of the situations that may necessitate a tooth extraction is pericoronitis. A fancy word for inflammation around a dental crown, pericoronitis is one of the main reasons dentists commonly remove people’s wisdom teeth, so let’s take a closer look at what it is.


Dentists say that a tooth is “impacted” when it is unable to fully erupt. This happens most frequently to the wisdom teeth, which are the largest teeth, and which erupt long after the others. Most people do not have enough room in their mouths for them, and the wisdom teeth often get stuck partially exposed and partially underneath a flap of gum tissue called an operculum. Food debris can easily get caught under the operculum, where it will be difficult for a patient to dislodge it. There, it will fuel the growth of infectious oral bacteria, leading to inflammation. Pericoronitis is often painful and may lead to discharges of bad-tasting pus. The infection might also spread, causing the airways to become swollen, as well.


The first step of treating pericoronitis to clean out the operculum and apply antibiotic rinse. Unfortunately, this does not prevent more food debris from being trapped under the operculum later. We may recommend surgically cutting the operculum away. But if the tooth is no longer erupting and we don’t think orthodontics could help to align it, we might advise the patient that the tooth should be removed. In those cases, we would extract it in as uninvasive a way as possible and provide the patient with guidance to ensure a quick recovery.


Drs. Denise VeyVoda and Robert G. West operate The Oyster Bay Family Dentists at 123 South Street, Oyster Bay, New York, 11771. To schedule an appointment, call 516-922-5730 or visit Oyster Bay Dentists and fill out a contact sheet.




 

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