tooth extraction

World record set by nine year old’s wisdom tooth extraction

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Recently, a nine year old in Virginia has become the youngest person according to Guinness World Records to have a wisdom tooth extracted. The nine year old boy was 9 years and 327 days old when he had the wisdom tooth extracted. The boy learned that he needed the extraction when his orthondontist in Virginia noticed on a 3D x-ray that he had a wisdom tooth and a molar growing on top of each other. This was in the upper left area of his mouth. The boy said he could not feel the tooth growing but his orthodontist wanted it removed so that the molar could drop in his mouth properly. The boy was referred to an oral surgeon in Virginia. The oral surgeon confirmed wha the orthondotist had said, the wisdom tooth needed to be removed in order to … Read more

Patient Stress Impact on Tooth Extraction Complications

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An interesting article titled “The potential role of patient stress in rates of dental post-extraction complication” written by McDowall appears in the 2014 edition of Oral Surgery (vol. 7, pp. 162-167). The article explores whether stress, alcohol and tobacco use impacts the complication rate experienced after a tooth extraction. The authors recruited patients for the study who were at least 16 years old and having at least one tooth extracted. The patients were asked to fill out questionnaires incorporating the Global Measure of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Fast Alcohol Screening Test (FAST) and questions related to tobacco use. The PSS consists of fourteen questions designed to determine how stressful the persons life is and higher scores indicated greater perceived stress. The FAST consists of four questions designed to determine the frequency too much alcohol consumption and higher scores indicate … Read more

Loss of Vision After Tooth Extraction

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An interesting article titled “A case report on loss of vision secondary to odontogenic orbital cellulitis” appears in Advances in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery written by A. Ghaesemi and H. Jones (vol. 4, 2021). The article discusses a case of a woman who lost vision after having a tooth extracted. In the article a discussion is made of a 54 year old woman who went to the hopsital after experiencing three days of left-sided periorbital swelling, nasal discharge, and increasing facial pain. She began to experience these symptoms after having a symptomatic tooth removed. When she arrived at the emergency department she had a left eye that was protruding with extensive conjunctival hyperemia, had restricted eye movements, had a rapid heartbeat, and said that she was increasingly having bluriness in her left eye. A few hours later she lost her … Read more

Should you Delay a Tooth Extraction if you recently had COVID-19 (Coronavirus)?

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An interesting article titled “Cavernous sinus thrombosis and blindness in a recovered (COVID-19) patient post simple tooth extraction: A case report,” is scheduled to appear in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and currently available in pre-proof form, written by Mohamed Abdelmoiz, Ahmed Nagi Alghandour, and Amr Gibaly (2022). The article discusses a case report the authors document where a man lost vision in one eye after having a tooth extracted after he had recently recovered from COVID-19 (Coronavirus). Based on this article the authors feel that patients who had recently had COVID-19 and also have diabetes should delay having tooth extractions performed for a period of time after recovering from COVID-19. In the article, the authors describe a 69 year old man with well managed diabetes who was admitted to a hospital due having hypoxia and fever. He was … Read more

Laser Therapy to Reduce Pain and Improve Healing After Tooth Removal

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An interesting study titled “The effect of the low-level laser therapy on healing and pain after tooth extraction: a systematic review” written by Ribeiro et al. appears in Oral Surgery in 2017 (vol. 10, pp. 174-183). The article attempts to perform a systematic review to determine if lower level laser therapy improves healing and reduces pain after having a tooth extracted. In the past several similar studies that have been conducted have been discussed on this site see for example Using Laser Therapy after Tooth Extraction to Improve Wound Healing and Can you Use Low Level Laser Therapy After Wisdom Teeth Removal to Reduce Pain?. Low level laser therapy aids in the healing process by providing radiation that is absorbed through cytochromes in the mitochondria and then converted into energy by adenosine-50-triphosphate (ATP) which causes protein synthesis and acceleration of … Read more