Teeth Pulling

You may have to get teeth pulled if you are planning to get braces, but have not lost all of your baby teeth. Obviously we don’t want to be putting braces on just to have a couple of the teeth fall out, plus then you would have to wait the time it takes for your permanent teeth to come in! Thus your orthodontist may prescribe getting your baby teeth pulled if he/she wants to get you in braces.

Here is how my (Erik’s) appointment with the oral surgeon went:

First I arrived at the office. My family and I sat around in the waiting room until one of the assistants escorted us to a separate waiting room. I had decided earlier that I did not want to be anesthetized so that I would be somewhat aware of what was going on during the surgery. This new room had a TV in it and, after about five minutes, the same assistant came in and gave me my glass of “happy juice.” It took, again, around five minutes for the stuff to take its effect and I became pretty out of it. They moved me into the surgery room and had me sit down in the reclining chair.

Next my surgeon took a needle and injected local anesthetics into my mouth so my gums would be numb when he pulled out the teeth. Although I don’t remember most of this, the oral surgeon pulled out my two baby teeth and replaced them with squares of gauze to help stop the bleeding. Then he helped me back into the waiting room and gave instructions to my parents on what I should do and eat for the next few days. We then went home, and I slept for about three hours. When I woke up I was in very minimal pain and was even able to do some schoolwork.

After having the surgery, the goal is to get the spaces where the teeth were stopped up with a blood clot. This clot is very “loose” and can easily be knocked out by eating hard food, so you will probably be instructed to stay on a liquid diet (i.e. soup, smoothies, etc.) for the next few days!

-Erik and Amanda