What Does an Oral Surgeon Do?
By Mark Warner | Published on December 15, 2009 | 0 Comments
It’s nice to have a specialist you can call on, which is why so many dentists rely on an oral surgeon. Dr. Mark J. Warner DDS, who owns Mark Warner DDS General Dentistry in Fairfield, California, discusses here what an oral surgeon does, and the circumstances in which he will call on one.
As a general dentist, I can do many of the things that an oral surgeon does. I can do wisdom teeth, I have been trained to do dental implants and many of those kinds of things related to that. But when we have something the general dentist does not want to do or does not feel comfortable doing, we have an oral surgeon we can call on.
I refer the oral surgeon for most wisdom teeth, implants, and any bone graft surgeries that need to be done. I do not do a lot of surgeries myself in general. Most of them I usually would prefer to send to an oral surgeon, which is also known as a maxillofacial surgeon, who are specialists within the broader field of dentistry.
General Anesthesia
For example, I do not use general anesthesia in our dental practice. The general surgeon will use a deeper sedation anesthetic but typically not a general. When a general is involved, then the patient is completely out, he cannot breathe for himself, all his vital things have to be taken care of externally. That is why we leave it up to an oral surgeon when something like that needs to be done.
In fact, in most dental offices, they will use deep sedation, where a patient can still breathe on his own. In this case, the doctors just have to make sure the airway is maintained and then they are okay. When a general is needed, that is not something done in most general dentist’s offices.
Specialist You Can Trust
It’s good to have a specialist you can use who is well-trained. We have a couple of oral surgeons that we use, who are people who we can trust. Oral surgeons are used to communicating on a regular basis with other dentists and physicians, and often collaborate with orthodontists and restorative dentists to plan treatment.
Oral surgeons will perform surgery on different parts of the mouth, jaws and even neck, not only performing difficult (and often multiple) teeth extractions, but also taking care of tumors, jaw abnormalities and more in those areas. They also can help restore deficient bone and gum tissue and even help treat conditions such as a cleft palate.
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