A common picture that comes to mind upon hearing oral surgery is a dental surgeon and his/her dental staff performing an operation on a patient and recovery time that takes days or weeks. Oral surgery is not necessarily a major operation. Tooth extraction is one of most common forms of oral surgery just to give you an idea.
Tooth extraction is done when the patient has impacted wisdom tooth, teeth that has been destroyed by tooth decay, suffered from trauma or fracture, removal of primary tooth and removal of teeth as preparation for orthodontic procedures.
Another form of oral surgery is corrective jaw surgery, also called orthognathic surgery. A maxillofacial surgeon usually performs this type of surgery for temporomandibular joint pain and dysfunction, minor or major trauma, incorrect bite or malocclusion, grinding of teeth, worn tooth, chewing, eating, talking and opening and closing of mouth difficulty, incorrect jaw position or un-proportioned facial structure. An oral surgeon will perform a complete evaluation to decide which corrective measures are needed.
Dental implants are also considered an oral surgery. This is a specialized procedure because it takes expertise to complete this successfully. This procedure usually takes up to nine months to complete because of the healing time, fitting and adjustments involved in order to establish and keep the implant in place.
When a lump or tumor must be removed, oral surgery is needed. Oral cancer affects more than 30,000 Americans and some of these cases result in deaths because this type of cancer is not always easily detected. Regular visits to Houston dentists can lead to early detection. Any suspicious changes in the mouth and in the face, neck and jaw area noticed by your dentist can be checked and screened for further diagnosis. Biopsy is performed by an oral surgeon where tissue sample is gathered from a suspected diseased area for further testing. Aside from oral surgery, radiation therapy may be needed to stop the cancer cells from spreading.
