Your dental sockets (which hold your teeth) are anchored in a tough, dense section of your jaw called your alveolar ridge. The strength of this bone is essential for withstanding the amount of bite pressure that your teeth experience each day. If you need tooth removal, the bone around your dental sockets will undergo some changes—some of which can be a little surprising. How can pieces of bone poke through your gums after tooth removal?

Fragments

Bone fragments don't always appear in your gums after tooth removal. It must be remembered that the bone which supports your dental sockets is (necessarily) thick, and the removal of a tooth isn't simply like unhooking something. 

Bone

The removal of a tooth can lead to fragmentation of the dense bone immediately surrounding the dental socket. This doesn't lead to any lasting damage, and most people would be totally unaware of these fragments since they're contained within the gum tissues. Larger fragments can become lodged in your gums, and since they're no longer connected to any part of your body, they are recognized as foreign objects. Your body then gets to work ridding itself of these foreign objects.

Spiky Ends

Larger bone fragments can be pushed out through your gums. Their spiky ends then extend out of your gums while the rest of the fragment remains submerged. You probably won't be able to see these spiky ends poking out of your gums, although you might feel them as they rub against your tongue and other soft tissues inside your mouth, potentially causing irritation.

Removal

This irritation is only going to be minor, so it's up to you if you want to do anything about it. These fragments don't indicate that anything has gone wrong with your tooth removal and are really just the aftereffects of the procedure. If the physical irritation is annoying you, schedule an appointment with your dentist. The fragments can be located and extracted with sterile tweezers. As simple as it sounds, don't try it at home. The fragments are notoriously difficult to locate, and you may damage your gums with your own tweezers.

Self-Resolving

Treatment is not essential, so if the fragments aren't bothering you, it's safe to leave them alone. The fragments will continue to be pushed into your mouth, where they'll likely be swallowed. This isn't dangerous, as the pieces are too small to pose a choking hazard. In fact, they're so small that you may not even notice that you're swallowing them. 

Bone fragments may poke through your gums after tooth removal, but it doesn't happen to everyone. If it happens to you and becomes an irritation, please contact your dentist for guidance.

Reach out to a company like Conestoga Oral Surgery for more information. 

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