Beyond the typical dental care you can find from a Family Dentistry Apache Junction, many dentist offices also offer Oral Surgery services. Most adults have had to deal with oral surgery in the form of wisdom teeth removal, but oral surgery is also performed when treating temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJD, and when removing oral tumors or cysts. The removal of wisdom teeth is most often caused by mesioangular impaction meaning at least one of the four wisdom teeth is growing in at an angle pushing the other teeth forward towards the front of the mouth. Removing these teeth is necessary if the teeth do not emerge completely or if they grow at an angle because it can be damaging to the teeth around it. In the case of those teeth that don’t grow in completely, they can harbor food particles and bacteria which can cause infection. During the surgery the patient is put under by using anesthesia and the wisdom teeth are removed.
Sufferers of temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJD. can experience severe pain caused by dysfunction of the jaw joint. TMJD can cause ear pain, clicking and popping of the joint, headaches, and even hearing loss. There are a myriad of causes for this disorder but for those who experience very severe symptoms, surgery may be an option. Currently surgeries for this disorder include arthrocentesis which is a flushing out of the jaw joint using a special solution, and also realigning the shape of teeth to adjust the bite of the patient which can provide relief. Birth defects like cleft lip and cleft palate can also be corrected using oral surgery. Both are birth defects that occur when the lip or palate does not fuse together as it is forming during pregnancy. Correcting these defects involves fusing together both sides of the lip or palate and are best corrected when a child is less than six months old. Later on in life, braces or dental implants may be needed in addition to the initial cleft lip or cleft palate surgery in order to add any teeth that may be missing or help align existing teeth.
