Oral Surgery Procedures

Wisdom teeth surgical extraction

Wisdom teeth, also known as third molars, are teeth located at the back corners of the mouth, upper and lower. There are usually four of them, although occasionally, some or all of them are missing. In many cases, there is no room for them to erupt and they remain trapped and wedged, causing pain, infection and other dental problems, and it is deemed necessary to remove them. The operation is performed by a specialist oral surgeon with local anesthesia that completely controls the pain. Often, dentists will recommend the removal of wisdom teeth, as a precaution, even if they do not cause symptoms, to avoid the patient from any problems in the future, such as significant damage to adjacent teeth and jawbone that may develop asymptomatically.

Cost: £280

Root remnant surgical extraction

Teeth that have been remained untreated for a long period of time and whose molars have been extensively damaged or have broken are located within the gums and cannot be removed with the manipulations of a simple extraction. The oral surgeon must perform a bone surgical operation to locate the root remnants and remove them.

Cost: £260

Apicectomy

In most of the times a root canal treatment is enough to save a tooth with an infected pulp from extraction. However, it is not uncommon that, due to unfavorable anatomy of the tooth, micro-cracks at the edge of the root or super-numerary tiny non-treatable root canals, this non-surgical treatment is not effective. In such cases endodontic surgery, by means of apicectomy (root-end resection) may solve the problem and cure the surrounding bone from the long-standing infection.

Cost: £360

Surgical exposure of the crown of an impacted tooth

It is not uncommon for a tooth, mainly a canine, to remain unerupted and stuck under the gum into the bone. This situation requires often surgical exposure of the crown with the presence of a specialized orthodontist who will stick an orthodontic bracket on the exposed crown of the impacted tooth in order to retract it and properly align it to correct position in the dental arch.

Cost: £400

Surgical crown lengthening

There are cases when a deeply decayed or broken tooth may be saved with a filling or a prosthetic treatment, like a crown, which, however, should be placed deep in the gums on the remaining healthy tooth surface. A prerequisite is a surgical crown lengthening of the tooth that will bring this surface at a visible treatable height above the gums.

Cost: £360

Dental Implant Procedures

Dental implant

A dental implant may replace a damaged or missing tooth. The implant, which is usually a screw-like post, is surgically inserted into the jawbone and represents the root of the tooth. At a later stage, after healing, a prosthetic crown may be secured onto it.  A dental implant may support a single crown while more implants may support a multi-crown bridge or secure and stabilize a removable denture in case it has a poor fit. The condition and volume of the jawbone determine the treatment plan, type and number of implants as well as the procedure needed for the restoration, which may require several months. The good thing is that the artificial teeth look and function much like natural teeth. Implants are made of titanium, which integrades to bone, are solid and stable and do not decay like your own teeth. As in all oral surgery procedures implant insertion is performed under local anesthesia that completely controls pain during the operation.

Cost: from £2,000

Guided Bone Regeneration procedure

If the bone volume of your jaw at the area that an implant is needed is not enough, or it is too soft, bone grafting may be needed. This may be done before or simultaneously with implant placement. A bone graft may create a more solid environment for the implant, which is necessary as the chewing force may put an implant under great pressure. Several materials may be used as bone graft such as small particles of your own bone harvested from another site of your mouth, synthetic materials or bone from a human donor or animal source. The material of choice is placed in the jawbone defect, covered by a collagen barrier membrane to keep it in place and the gums are re-attached onto the whole surgical area. It may take several weeks or months for new bone to grow in the area of interest.

Cost: from £800

Split crest surgical widening of jawbone

In cases of enough height but insufficient width of the alveolar crest a split crest surgical procedure is performed by the aid of a special medical device. The in-between space of the dissected crest is filled by bone graft and may, thus, host implants of adequate diameter. Implants may be inserted simultaneously with this surgical procedure.

Cost: £2,500

Block grafting

When insufficient bone volume, either in width or in height, is depicted at the area of missing teeth a bone block grafting procedure may be chosen. This involves the harvest of a bone block of bone from a donor site of the mouth and secure it with screws at the area of interest. This may increase the width or the height of the alveolar ridge. Implants cannot be placed simultaneously. Therefore, bone block should be left uneventful to fuse with the underlying bone for several weeks. At this later stage dental implants may be inserted.

Cost: £3,000

External Sinus Lift Surgery

The sinuses are cavities normally existing at the back areas of the upper jaw, right and left, below of which the back teeth are located within the alveolar bone. If those teeth are missing for a long time or previous infection was the cause for loosing the teeth, bone below the sinus that used to support the teeth is gradually resorbed and the sinus expands (pneumatization). Therefore, the height of the alveolar ridge is dramatically reduced and an implant of adequate length or diameter to withstand normal mastication forces cannot be inserted. A surgical procedure called external (or open) sinus lift may restore bone volume by grafting the lower part of the sinus with bone substitutes and barrier collagen membranes.  Several months are needed to pass for the bone to grow within this area. Implants may be placed simultaneously with sinus lift procedure or at a later stage.

Cost: £2,500

Internal sinus lift surgery

If the resorption of bone below the sinus cavity is not severe then an internal (closed) sinus lift may be performed instead of an external one. Internal sinus lift is less invasive and is performed simultaneously with implant placement by advancing the graft in the sinus, through the prepared implant bed before implant placement.

Cost: £1,000