Patients who suffer from the condition typically notice chronic or intense headaches and neck aches upon waking in the morning, or at the end of the day. Other common symptoms include sensitive teeth, gum recession, bone loss, popping or clicking in the jaw joint, and difficulty opening the mouth.

Identifying and eliminating the cause of TMJ disorder is the best way to prevent the uncomfortable and destructive side effects. Discussing your symptoms with your oral surgeon can help you to move towards a solution and find relief.

One of the most common causes of TMJ disorder is prolonged clenching and grinding of the teeth. Many patients are unaware of this habit, as it tends to happen during sleep. Rather than risk damage to the teeth and the jaw joint, a protective mouth guard may be prescribed for nighttime use.

It is likely that disorders of the jaw joint may be caused be poorly aligned teeth. Teeth that are out of alignment can produce undue force on the jaw joint during biting and chewing. The stress imposed on the joint can be painful and even harmful if left unaddressed.

Trauma or accidental damage to the face or mouth is an often overlooked source of TMJ dysfunction. Car accidents, sports accidents, a fall, or a fist fight can damage the joint to the degree that it no longer functions properly. Orthodontic treatment, oral surgery, or a combination of both may be recommended to help you achieve relief.

Patients who are forced to endure high levels of stress, due to physical or emotional stimulation, are particularly susceptible to TMJ disorders. As stress is manifested in the way of clenching or gritting of the teeth, the joint pays the price or the teeth suffer irreversible damage.

Schedule a consultation with our experienced oral surgeons, serving Dallas TX and the surrounding areas, to determine both the cause and proper treatment for your TMJ disorder.

When a tooth is missing, your team is incomplete. Your chewing capacity is compromised, your jaw joint has to overcompensate, and the neighboring teeth become unsupported. In time, shifting, crowding, and bone loss become more evident. You may even notice that your confidence begins to decline as you grow increasingly insecure about your smile.

Replacing your missing tooth is imperative. In most cases, replacing the missing tooth as soon as possible is the best way to reduce the consequences of tooth loss. But, which tooth replacement is right for you: Dental implants, a bridge, or dentures? 

Since all methods of tooth replacement require an investment of your time and money, you want to ensure that your investment is well spent. Research has shown that dental implants are indeed the best investment for your health. Your oral surgeon can help to determine if an implant is the best choice for you.

A permanent tooth replacement that is designed to function like a natural tooth and last for a lifetime is the best way to protect your health.

Since an implant is essentially an artificial tooth root, it is strong enough to withstand a normal degree of chewing force. Regaining proper chewing function is critical in relieving undue stress on the jaw joint.

By occupying a permanent position at the location of the missing tooth, your implant is able to provide adequate support for the neighboring teeth. The risk of shifting, drifting, and crowding is immediately eliminated. Even the bone loss that is normally associated with a missing tooth is dramatically reduced.

No other tooth replacement alternative can offer the advantages of a dental implant. As you decide on the best treatment option for your health, consider selecting the option that provides the best return on your investment. Talk to our oral surgeons at Northern Texas Facial & Oral Surgery today about dental implants. Call our Irving TX office at 972-401-8301, or contact any of our three locations for more information.

Frequent, loud snoring can be a pointer to something more serious – a condition called ‘sleep apnea’, in which the patient’s breathing frequently stops and starts during sleep.

Left untreated, sleep apnea can interrupt the person’s breathing for a few seconds at a time and these interruptions can occur many times throughout the night. Sleep apnea is a treatable condition, so if you suffer from or know someone who suffers from sleep apnea, contact our oral surgeon to learn about your options.

There are typically 3 types of sleep apnea:

• Obstructive sleep apnea –occurs when the soft tissue at the back of the patient’s throat relaxes during sleep and causing a blockage of the airway
• Central sleep apnea – occurs when the patient’s central nervous system fails to properly control the patient’s breathing
• Complex sleep apnea – a combination of obstructive and central sleep apnea

Once sleep apnea has been diagnosed, the oral surgeon they may recommend any of the following treatments. There are a range of solutions available to help alleviate the causes and symptoms of sleep apnea, both non-surgical and surgical.

Non-surgical treatments include:

• Change in diet, as excess weight can be a contributory factor in sleep apnea
• Avoiding alcohol as this can relax muscles in the throat
• Modifying the sleeping position, including elevation of the head and sleeping on one’s side
• Quitting smoking
• Wearing a dental appliance designed to prevent OSA, or a CPAP device to supply regular oxygen

Surgical treatments include:

• Surgery, including to the nasal passageways, tonsils, adenoids or removal of excess tissue at the back of the throat or inside the nose
• Enlargement of the jaw to increase the space of the upper airway

Sleep apnea has been linked to other health issues such as heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke and other potentially dangerous health conditions.

If you are affected by sleep apnea in the DFW area, contact our team at Northern Texas Facial & Oral Surgery to find out which treatment option is best for you.

However, dental implants have become a hugely popular method of restorative dental surgery and the treatment can help rebuild self confidence, as well as help protect your remaining teeth. 

Dental implants involve an oral surgeon placing a number of titanium supports directly into the patients jawbone and placing a dental crown atop the support, giving the illusion of a perfectly healthy tooth. Dental implants can be used to replace singular missing teeth, but can also be utilized to replace a larger quantity and even complete sets of teeth.

Dental implants have numerous advantages over other forms of dental reconstruction surgery:

• They are permanent solutions
• They look just like real, healthy teeth and so help restore self confidence
• They are not susceptible to tooth decay
• They help prevent jawbone deterioration around the gap
• They reinforce surrounding teeth, strengthening the patient’s bite and maintaining alignment of teeth
• They don’t require special cleaning compounds or adhesives
• They are more difficult to damage

Because dental implants are placed directly into the jawbone by the oral surgeon, the titanium supports used effectively act as the tooth’s ‘root’, stimulating the surrounding gum tissue and jawbone, and so help prevent degradation of the area. Where a patient has already suffered some degradation of the jawbone, which places the use of dental implants into question, the oral surgeon can perform bone grafts in order to rebuild the affected area to allow dental implants to be used.

As well as performing all the functions of a living, healthy tooth, perhaps the best thing of all when it comes to dental implants is the fact that they are totally indistinguishable to a healthy tooth. Dental implants are molded to be an exact fit to replace the missing tooth.

To learn more about dental implants in Keller, contact our oral surgery practice at 817-379-1654 and schedule your professional consultation.

However, there is an alternative to consider that takes away much of the time associated with dental implant treatment. Known as the All-on-4 dental implant technique, it may also be referred to as ‘same day teeth’ or ‘same day smiles’, and is a method used by oral surgeons to replace a full arch of upper and/or lower teeth – using only 4 implants.

Unlike normal dental implant treatment, which can take several weeks to complete, an entire All-on-4 treatment can be accomplished in just one day and involves the oral surgeon strategically placing four dental implants into the patient’s mouth. A fixed-bridge is then attached onto the implants, locking them together, and enabling them to heal.

Since the two posterior implants are placed at angles, issues whereby a patient may have insufficient bone mass in the jaw bone to ordinarily support dental implants are minimized.

Prior to treatment, the oral surgeon will undertake a full review of the patient’s medical history in order to plan the treatment, including extraction of existing teeth.

At the time of treatment, the implants will placed, abutments fitted, and then the fixed-bridge will be applied and adjusted to ensure the best possible fitting and comfort is achieved – all in one visit.

A further visit will be required at a later date in order for the surgeon to remove the bridge and take new impressions in order to create a more permanent set of teeth. These will be custom-fitted to match the patient’s mouth and so ensure perfect comfort and bite.

Although often used for patients whose jaw bone mass may not normally accommodate standard dental implant treatment, All-on-4 dental implants can also be utilized for patients who find wearing traditional dentures uncomfortable, or who may have problems performing normal tasks with dentures, such as eating.

To learn more about this innovative procedure in Dallas TX, contact our experienced team at Northern Texas Facial & Oral Surgery today.

In certain cases, however, a tooth extraction is the best course of treatment and sometimes unavoidable. 

For example, a patient with a severely decayed or damaged tooth may need to have the tooth removed.

Although a dentist may initially attempt to restore or preserve a patient’s natural tooth, instances of advanced decay or a significant injury or trauma can render the tooth unsalvageable. In removing a significantly decayed tooth, the oral surgeon may be acting to save the surrounding teeth from a similar fate.

Similarly, if a patient chooses to get a dental implant rather than a restoration such as a crown, the tooth would need to be removed before the dental implant could be placed.

Tooth extraction may also be necessary prior to orthodontic treatment if the teeth are crowded along a jawbone too small to accommodate all of them. If the jawbone cannot be expanded to allow the teeth to fit in the proper alignment, then tooth extraction offers another option to the orthodontist and patient.

If a tooth fails to erupt properly and becomes impacted, extraction is highly recommended. This phenomenon often occurs with the third molars, or wisdom teeth. Those third molars are prone to infection and other complications when they become impacted, and it’s best to have them removed by an oral surgeon—ideally before the patient reaches age 25.

Patients may be reluctant to have a tooth extracted, but they should take comfort in the technology available to replace an absent tooth.

If your tooth does need to be removed, you should begin to plan the process of replacing it before the extraction takes place. Most patients want to fill in the resulting gap in the smile as soon as possible after they heal from the extraction.

Talk to our team at Northern Texas Facial & Oral Surgery, serving Dallas TX and the surrounding areas, to learn more about the options available to replace an extracted tooth.

Patients have a number of options for replacing missing teeth. A removable partial denture, a fixed permanent bridge, full dentures or dental implants all may be considered, depending on the specifics of the case.

Dental implants are presently the best solution for multiple missing teeth, whether they are small in number or the patient is edentulous. A small number of dental implants may be placed side by side to fill in a short gap in the smile.

Alternatively, an oral surgeon can place four to six dental implants to anchor a prosthetic arch of teeth, which is a vast improvement on the conventional denture.

Dental implants are superior to the other options because they replace the entire structure of the missing tooth. Although we tend to underappreciate it because it’s hidden in the bone, the tooth’s root is essential to an attractive smile and stability of the mouth’s structure.

A tooth’s root serves as an anchor, and the jawbone will atrophy or erode as a result when a tooth is lost. In edentulous patients, this effect can be particularly dramatic, with severely pinched skin accompanying the shrinking jawbone. It results in a prematurely aged appearance for patients.

Dental implants are the only tooth replacement method that helps to prevent jawbone erosion. With dentures or bridges, the shape of the jaw can still change over time. For denture wearers, this means having their appliances re-fitted every few years and a periodic need to get an entirely new set.

In addition to their structural advantages, dental implants are easier to maintain and they offer a more lifelike appearance. Dentures and bridges can be noticeable additions to the smile.

If you need to replace missing teeth, consult with our experienced oral surgeons serving Grapevine. Call 817-329-4979 to learn more about all that dental implants have to offer.

When a patient or a dentist spots a sign of potential trouble, the patient’s next visit may be with an oral surgeon, who can remove a tissue sample that is then sent to a lab for biopsy.

That trip to the oral surgeon is the patient’s initial entry into the dental specialty of oral pathology.

Specifically, oral pathology is the discipline that focuses on the diagnosis of oral diseases through various forms of examination. When an oral pathologist identifies the underlying mechanism of the disease, those findings can then point to the most effective treatment for the condition.

Oral pathology is generally divided into two categories, surgical and clinical. With surgical pathology, a tissue sample is removed surgically and then examined under a microscope to identify the cellular changes that have led to the condition.

Some oral diseases and conditions may not necessitate a surgical biopsy, so another aspect of oral pathology involves clinical examination. An oral pathology specialist might rely heavily on a visual examination, radiology or other techniques in uncovering the causes of conditions such as facial pain, fungal infections or oral ulcers, among others.

Oral pathologists gain further knowledge in the field by completing a post-graduate residency after finishing dental school. This experience gives them the opportunity for in-depth study of the processes involved in various oral diseases.

Some oral diseases are merely inconvenient or uncomfortable, while others are potentially life-threatening. If you have noticed a symptom or an unusual spot or lesion in your mouth that may indicate a problem, take advantage of the specialty of oral pathology. The process will help shed light on your condition and determine an appropriate treatment.

To learn more and to schedule your consultation in the Dallas TX area, contact Northern Texas Facial & Oral Surgery today.

Although it’s routinely performed, wisdom teeth extraction is still a significant surgery, and most patients choose some form of sedation to make the procedure more comfortable.

In the past, many patients selected general anesthesia for wisdom teeth extraction, but an increasing number are turning to sedation dentistry instead.

Sedation dentistry is widely considered to be safer than general anesthesia. The medication, typically from a class of anti-anxiety drugs known as benzodiazepines, helps patients achieve a deep state of relaxation. Patients remain conscious during sedation and they are still able to respond to requests from the oral surgeon.

Also, because patients remain awake with sedation, the airway is not compromised as it is with general anesthesia. As a result, sedation dentistry comes with a lower risk of complications as well.

An oral surgeon can provide patients with a number of different sedation options. Sedatives can be taken in pill form or delivered intravenously. Patients may also inhale gaseous nitrous oxide to achieve the same effect.

Regardless of the delivery method, the medications themselves work based on similar mechanisms. Certain methods may take effect more quickly, which may appeal to some patients. Additionally, the oral surgeon and the rest of the surgical team monitor patients who are under sedation for any signs of trouble.

If you choose sedation dentistry for your wisdom teeth extraction, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to drive immediately after the appointment. Make arrangements for a responsible adult to escort you to and from the appointment.

You’ll want to be as comfortable as possible during your wisdom teeth extraction. When you are meeting with your oral surgeon to plan your procedure, ask about the sedation options that are available to you. Having this conversation will help you to be more prepared for the surgery, and you’ll have a better idea of what to expect.

If it’s time to have your wisdom teeth removed, contact our Irving TX office at 972-401-8301 to schedule your consultation.

Jaw surgery can help to alleviate a variety of symptoms, from pain and discomfort to difficulty chewing to sleep apnea. Some people choose jaw surgery for primarily cosmetic factors, too, in order to eliminate an unattractive problem with the bite or to bring the chin into proper proportion with the rest of the face. 

If you have signs of a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder, your general dentist may recommend a consultation with an oral surgeon. Similarly, an orthodontist may recommend surgery for a patient whose case cannot be resolved through braces alone.

Prior to undergoing any surgical procedures on your jaw, you and oral surgeon will meet a number of times to plan the surgery. Your surgeon will explore your treatment goals and gather data that will help to shape the techniques and approach used during the procedure.

If you are having jaw surgery in conjunction with orthodontic treatment, your orthodontist may need to reposition the teeth before the surgery can be completed. The oral surgeon and orthodontist work as a team in such cases.

Depending on the extent of your surgery, you may choose to take advantage of sedation dentistry or general anesthesia so that you will remain comfortable throughout the procedure. If you do, be sure to ask your oral surgeon what preparations are necessary to ensure a safe surgery.

Be prepared to give yourself adequate time for rest and recovery following the surgery, as well. At the very least, you’ll need to alter your diet to accommodate the healing process. Some patients may be able to eat soft foods, but others may have to switch to liquid meals for a few weeks.

Jaw surgery can be very complex, so it’s important to choose an oral surgeon who is experienced in performing such surgery. Your oral surgeon should be able to discuss the procedure in detail with you, and the surgeon should also be able to demonstrate results achieved with previous patients.

For more information and to schedule a consultation in the Dallas area, contact our dedicated and experienced oral surgery team at Northern Texas Facial & Oral Surgery.