Before a tooth can be extracted, Dr. Hurtado will take a digital X-ray of your mouth to determine if you need an extraction. Next, he will decide if you need a simple extraction or a surgical extraction. When you can see the tooth inside your mouth, it’s called a simple extraction. In a simple extraction, Dr. Hurtado will loosen the tooth with an instrument called an elevator and gently remove it with dental forceps.

A surgical extraction is more complex. The tooth may not have come through the surface of your gums, as is common with wisdom teeth, or it may have broken off at your gum line. During a surgical extraction, Dr. Hurtado makes a little cut into the gum to locate and take out the tooth in question. Sometimes the tooth needs to be sectioned, or cut into smaller pieces, to be removed.

It may also be necessary to remove some of the bone around the affected tooth.

In both a simple extraction and surgical extraction, Dr. Hurtado gives you a local anesthetic, so you don’t feel any pain. If multiple teeth are extracted at the same time, as is routine with wisdom teeth extraction, Dr. Hurtado may give you a general anesthetic. You’ll sleep and be pain-free throughout the whole procedure.