Leukoplakia

One of the services Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania provides is biopsies for leukoplakia. If you’ve been referred to us for an excision, you probably already have some idea of what that means. But if you’ve just noticed a white spot on the soft tissue of your mouth that won’t go away, we want you to understand why it’s important to get that examined and what your next steps might be.

Leukoplakia is the development of a thick white lesion on the gums, tongue, or inside of the cheek in response to prolonged irritation. It is not necessarily cancerous, but it might be, especially when the lesion is irregularly shaped and accompanied by red spots. Leukoplakia most often develops in response to the use of tobacco and alcohol products, but it can also result from poorly fitted dentures or bridges rubbing against soft tissues. Sometimes a dentist might send a patient to our oral surgery office to have the lesion removed and analysed. A lesion might also be caused by a viral infection in a person with a weakened immune system.

Leukoplakia lesions will usually disappear when the source of irritation is removed. That may require a patient to stop smoking or to cut back on alcohol. We can refit patients’ prosthetic devices and determine whether their other teeth are likely to cause irritation in the future. People with leukoplakia-related viruses are likely to be prescribed medication, but non-cancerous leukoplakia is unlikely to be painful.

 Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania operate in Philadelphia, Folsom, and Clifton Heights. Visit Oral Surgery PA.

 

Smoking And Oral Surgery

Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania are dedicated to encouraging patients to make the best decisions for their oral health.  We care for patient’s teeth and perform many procedures on patients with various grades of oral health.  Many patients are still smokers, and despite all the known health risks, it is a notoriously tough habit to break.  We have seen patients at every stage of quitting smoking when they need a dental procedure.  Even if you can’t quit just yet, it is important to abstain from smoking after a tooth extraction or procedure on the gums.

We want you to abstain from smoking after oral surgery as long as you can, but we recommend waiting at least five days for your safety.  The sucking action used to inhale a cigarette can dislodge a blood clot at the surgery site, which we would then call a dry socket.  A dry socket is a serious risk for infection and can cause intense pain.  Smoking also causes blood vessels to shrink, so they deliver less oxygen and fewer nutrients to the wound area and it slows the healing process.  We want you to quit cigarettes for good, but after oral surgery you must wait for your safety!

To learn more about oral health and all the services we provide, visit www.oralsurgerypa.com for more information. To schedule an appointment with one of our doctors at Oral Surgery Consultants of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, call 215-463-4141.