Tackling Your Dental Treatment Plan

When you think of oral surgery, you probably think of surgery on your teeth, gums, lips and even your throat. However, there are many other oral surgeries performed. If you have extra teeth in your mouth that, for whatever reason, have grown through the roof of your mouth rather than your jaw, you should have these extracted. In their place will undoubtedly be holes, which must be repaired. Here is how such a surgery is typically conducted.

Extracting the Teeth

First and foremost, your dentist will take x-rays to determine how deeply rooted these extra teeth are. Sometimes, on the way to growing into their proper position, teeth buds get stuck in sinus cavities, and that is why they grow down out of the roof of your mouth rather than your jaw. If they are not too deeply rooted in your sinuses, then extraction is fairly straightforward.

If they do have deep roots, your dentist may have to call in an otolaryngologist, or ENT specialist, to help with the surgery. The teeth may need to be broken and cut from your sinus cavities, which is why the ENT specialist/otolaryngologist needs to assist. He or she will make sure no major damage is caused to your sinuses so that you can continue to breathe and smell as normally as possible after the surgery.

Filling in the Holes Left Behind

If the extraction of these extraneous teeth is simple, the only holes left in the roof of your mouth are those left in the soft palate. These can be sewn shut by the dentist. If the teeth were rooted in the hard palate of your mouth, or they were deeply rooted in the bones that form your nasal cavities, there may be openings in these bones that have to be closed. Bone grafting may be a possibility, but usually the best approach is to use mesh grafts to close these small holes. Over the next few months, the mesh grafts will be incorporated into your skull by new osteoblasts, or bone cells, that will grow new bone over the mesh grafts to create a fully closed area. 

Followup Care

Your dentist and any other specialist on the case will want to closely monitor your case. Within a month or two of your surgery, you may have to have a CT scan or MRI to make sure your body is accepting the mesh graft and closing the holes in the bones in your head. You will also be monitored for infection, since the holes and grafts are so close to your sinuses.

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