Oral Surgery/Extraction

Sometimes the only treatment option for tooth decay or gum disease is to remove the affected tooth. Dr. McCrea completed a General Practice Residency early in his professional career during which oral surgery was a strong component. He has removed many teeth during his twenty plus years as a dentist. He understands that one of the most important issues in removing a tooth is patient comfort. We want you to be confident that you will feel as little discomfort during the procedure as possible.

We always look to have profound numbness before beginning any surgical procedure.

To ensure this Dr. McCrea will provide local anesthetic, and wait using a timer to be sure he gives the anesthesia enough time to work before beginning the extraction We work carefully and deliberately when preforming extractions. We pay attention to the patient’s sense of discomfort. Toothaches can make it harder to numb a patient and allowing enough time for the anesthesia is a key to a comfortable procedure.

If anxiety is a problem we can use nitrous oxide (laughing gas) or oral sedatives (Halcion), or even the two in combination we can control your stress.

Toothaches come up at inopportune times, we will do our best to get you out of pain as soon as possible. Some tooth ache visits are best dealt with by extracting the bad tooth that day and sometimes we need to wait, for an infection to clear up.

Dr. McCrea is able to perform most oral surgery procedures in his office. However there are some more complicated, malpositioned third molars (wisdom teeth) that he does refer to an oral surgeon. When planning your procedure he will talk about the complexity of the procedure and the options for keeping you comfortable.