Our skilled dental team brings gentle and practical skills to every tooth extraction from beginning to end.

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Tooth Extractions

Innovation Dental's mission is to preserve your natural teeth whenever possible. We take seriously the impacts of removing even one tooth and understand how it can lead to problems related to your chewing ability, your jaw joint, and potentially shifting teeth, all of which can be a detriment to your overall health.

But in some circumstances, you may have a tooth that we have no choice but to remove for any number of reasons.

Severe decay
Advanced periodontal disease
Tooth broken off at the gumline
Poorly positioned, crowded, or impacted tooth
Preparation for other restorations

Our goal with every dental extraction is to ensure you understand the process, including your options for replacing the extracted tooth.

Tooth Extraction Aftercare in O'Fallon, IL

With most extraction procedures, you are left with an empty socket once occupied by your tooth. In that space, a blood clot forms, vital to the healing process. We may recommend that you bite on a gauze pad for up to an hour immediately after the treatment. You may change the gauze several times until the socket ceases to ooze, which means the clot has become substantial enough to stop any bleeding.

Your main goal is not to disturb or dislodge the clot. Therefore, you will need to avoid rinsing your mouth too vigorously, drinking through a straw, smoking, or brushing near the socket for 72 hours. We also recommend you limit vigorous exercise for the next 24 hours to avoid increasing blood pressure and stressing your clot.

After your appointment, you may experience some soreness and swelling near your empty socket. You can use an ice pack or cold compress to minimize inflammation. We may suggest certain over-the-counter pain medications to help with your discomfort for several days. Please call our office if the medication doesn't seem to be working. Drink lots of fluids and eat softer foods on the extraction day.

We also want you to resume your regular dental routine after a day or two, brushing and flossing your teeth at least once daily. Then, after a few days, you should feel fine and can resume your normal activities.

Contact Us for More Information about Dental Extractions

The Innovation Dental Group team will always prioritize saving a tooth over removing it, so you can rest assured that entrusting us to care for a damaged tooth will result in the best possible outcome. However, if you have a tooth on the cusp of extraction, we encourage you to call our O'Fallon, IL, dental office to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will I be completely "knocked out" with IV sedation?

Intravenous sedation, or "twilight sleep," helps you to be comfortable and calm when undergoing dental procedures. Intravenous sedation, or "IV sedation," is designed to better enable you to undergo dental procedures while very relaxed. You may not always be asleep, but you will be comfortable, calm, and relaxed, drifting in and out of sleep – a "twilight sleep."

This option is for patients who can't tolerate uncomfortable procedures and are actually looking to have no memory of their treatments. In these ways, IV sedation will alleviate the anxiety associated with your treatment while not creating new trauma that fuels future stress and worry.

When you choose the option of intravenous sedation, Dr. Schillinger administers and treats you all at our O'Fallon, IL location, eliminating the cost of having your treatment carried out in an operating room or same-day surgical facility.

We Also Offer Nitrous Oxide Sedation

For a milder sedation option, you can choose inhaled nitrous oxide, also called "laughing gas." This option has numerous advantages over other options, such as:

Your level of sedation is adjustable
Few side-effects
No lasting after-effects
No needles
A pleasant relaxed sensation that dissipates quickly
Monitored by a dental professional

Regardless of your level of dental anxiety, we can offer a solution that lessens your experience while allowing you to receive the dental care you need and deserve.

Meet Our Doctor:

Dr. Alex Schillinger DMD
Owner/Dentist

Dr. Schillinger has a level of training and expertise that sets him apart from most O’Fallon dentists. Dr. Schillinger is a 1999 graduate of Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine. Upon graduation, he also completed a General Practice Residency in Advanced Dentistry at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, where he received certification in intravenous (IV) conscious sedation.

Dr. Schillinger is also a graduate of the Dawson Center for Advanced Dental Study, a leading Institute for the practice of comprehensive dental care, complex restorative treatments, and the treatment of Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction (TMJ). In addition, ...

Tooth Extractions Technology

Nitrous Oxide and IV Sedation

The Innovation Dental Group team understands that many people feel hesitation about visiting their dentist. Because we never want dental anxiety to be a barrier to care, we offer several forms of sedation. To decide which options are appropriate for you, Dr. Schillinger considers your medical history so that we can keep you safe during treatments.

Nitrous Oxide (Laughing Gas)

Nitrous oxide is a non-irritating, colorless gas that works as you inhale it. This compound has been a primary means of sedation in dentistry for many years. Nitrous oxide is safe when administered by our dental professionals, where the sedative gas is mixed with oxygen. You breathe it in through a comfortable nosepiece, and you may experience a disconnected feeling, even falling asleep without much memory of your treatment procedures.

The advantages when using nitrous oxide are:

We can adjust your sedation level
Minimal side-effects
Very effective in minimizing gagging
Few after-effects, with many patients returning to work or school afterward

Intravenous Sedation (“Twilight Sedation”)

For more extreme cases, we offer intravenous (IV) sedation, or “twilight sedation,” for their dental treatment. We are unique in providing this option compared to many other dental offices in the O'Fallon area.

Intravenous sedation, or “twilight sleep,” helps you to remain comfortable and calm when undergoing dental procedures. It is designed to make you very relaxed and not remember those procedures that may be very uncomfortable for you. IV sedation will essentially help alleviate the anxiety associated with your treatment. You may not always be asleep, drifting in and out of sleep – a “twilight sleep,” but you will remain comfortable, calm, and relaxed.

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