Minor Surgery
Although the most common association between dentist and pediatric age is that with orthodontic appliances, it is not uncommon for us dentists to resort to non-invasive minor surgery in children. Thanks to this, we can correct many ailments or prevent worse ones in view of a later period.
Extraction of deciduous teeth
Normally the exfoliation (i.e. the fall) of milk teeth occurs spontaneously, when the permanent tooth has completed a certain percentage of maturation of its own root, and by exerting a pressure on the corresponding milk tooth, it determines the reabsorption of the root and spontaneous fall.
In some cases, however, if the permanent tooth has a deviation of its eruptive axis or encounters obstacles of various kinds, the deciduous tooth does not move and has difficulty exfoliating, leading to local problems in the short and short term culminating in the inclusion and eventual ankylosis (fusion of the tooth to the bone) of the permanent tooth. In these cases, after radiographic examination, the removal of the milk tooth may be indicated to allow the normal eruption of the permanent tooth in the arch.
We recommend that all parents who contact us make an appointment with us whenever their children have problems with their milk teeth falling out.
Operations on soft tissue
In our office we often minimally invasive interventions on soft tissues, especially in the presence of short frenula which can lead to serious difficulties in speaking, eating and swallowing linked to a reduced ability to move the tongue or move the upper lip upwards.
In the first case we operate with lingual frenectomy, a term that describes the cutting of the lingual frenulum. This fibrous cord that connects the tongue to the jaw can be so short that it reduces its motility and requires resection to restore normal function of the tongue. The treatment is fast. It lasts 15-20 minutes after placing local anesthesia, usually with sedation and without resorting to preventive antibiotic therapy. Once concluded, just wait 24-36 hours to resume normal activities and start rehabilitation therapy aimed at correct motility.
In the second hypothesis, however, it may be necessary to perform an incision of the upper frenum and this, in addition to eliminating functional difficulties, serves to prevent or close the diastema (space between the upper central incisors). We recommend that the child undergo this operation in association with an orthodontic appliance, which will ensure that the scar tissue that forms does not prevent the closure of the space.
Other relatively frequent conditions may be the presence of cysts, supernumerary elements or odontomas which, when radiographically diagnosed with a panoramic radiograph that we recommend to be performed before the age of 8, must be removed surgically.
Exposure of canines and wisdom teeth < br />
The difficulty of eruption of the upper canines, unilateral or bilateral, is also relatively frequent in young people, due to the lack of space and alterations in the eruptive path of the canines, the last ones to appear in the upper arch and therefore , more often than other teeth, they find impediments that prevent their physiological eruption in the arch. In this situation, after having prepared the space necessary to align the canine in the arch, after having precisely located the tooth in question using 3D radiographic techniques, we resort to an incision of the gum to expose the included canine (this is the technical term) and, subsequently, reposition it in the arch with an appropriate orthodontic system.
Finally, we cannot forget the germectomy interventions in older children, aimed at the extraction of wisdom teeth where these have eruptive difficulties or involve a risk of damage to the second molars due to crowding of the rear teeth. We perform them with even greater caution than those practiced on adults.
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