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Oral Surgery in Mount Pleasant and Murrysville

Should a child see an oral surgeon?

There are multiple reasons why a child might need oral surgery but not all of them require seeing a specialist. Your child’s Mount Pleasant dentist can perform a number of basic surgical procedures that will keep your child healthy and help you keep costs low.

Adults Aren’t the Only Ones Who Need Oral Surgery

While it’s fairly common for adults to have to undergo surgical procedures, do children really need oral surgery?

In many cases, they do. Here are two types of surgical procedures provided by the doctors at Tender Care Pediatric Dentistry.

Wisdom Teeth Removal

Does every child need to have their wisdom teeth out? Not necessarily. The main reasons why your Mount Pleasant and Murrysville dentist would recommend this is because:

  • Your child can’t thoroughly clean their wisdom teeth
  • The wisdom teeth are partially impacted and causing pain
  • The teeth are infected
  • There isn’t enough room for the teeth to fully erupt (come into the mouth)

In some cases, impacted wisdom teeth can simply be monitored. However, if your child experiences any of the following symptoms, the teeth should be removed:

  • Pain
  • Swelling
  • Infection
  • Decay in the wisdom teeth or adjacent teeth
  • Root resorption (the wisdom tooth shifts and damages the roots of nearby teeth)

Laser Frenulectomy

When a child is tongue-tied, they have a condition called ankyloglossia. Everyone has a frenulum under their tongue – the bit of tissue that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth. In cases of ankyloglossia, the child’s frenulum is either unusually short or tighter than normal. The result is that the tongue has a limited range of motion.

In very young children, ankyloglossia can make breastfeeding nearly impossible, as the child isn’t able to fully latch onto their mother. As a child gets older, ankyloglossia can cause a speech impediment.

To remedy this situation, the doctors at Tender Care Pediatric Dentistry perform a laser frenulectomy (also known as a frenectomy), the ablation of part of the frenulum with a laser. The procedure takes just a few minutes total, with the frenulectomy taking a matter of seconds. Recovery is fast, as well, with some tenderness lasting for approximately seven days. Infants can start feeding right after the procedure.

Seeing Tender Card Pediatric Now Sets Your Kids Up for Life

When a child has a regular, professional dental routine – including seeing an oral surgeon for routine procedures – they’re set on the path of good oral health. Seeing their dentist now will help create healthful dental habits that will benefit them into adulthood.

Do you have questions about your child’s dentition? Do you think they might need braces or their wisdom teeth extracted? Contact us today at 724-542-4818 to schedule an evaluation.