Tooth extraction

Tooth extraction, also known as tooth removal, is a procedure available at our Agenskalna Dental Clinic.

When a tooth has suffered significant damage, or is at risk of damaging other teeth or your gums, and can’t be fixed with treatment such as a filling or crown, it may need to be extracted. We try to remove teeth only as a last resort, but depending on the circumstances and extent of the damage, there may be no other option but for a tooth or multiple teeth to be removed.

The removal of wisdom teeth, which are the four teeth furthest back in your mouth – one in each corner – and are the last of your teeth to grow, is a common procedure. Wisdom teeth can cause problems for some people because of the lack of space available in a person’s mouth at the point they break through the gum. This can cause them to emerge at an angle, get stuck and/or impact other teeth, which can cause irritation, pain, swelling and/or infection.

A tooth may also need to be extracted if the centre of it, which contains nerves and blood vessels, has a severe infection. This is may be necessary, if antibiotics don’t work, to prevent the spread of infection. 


When we extract a tooth, we normally use a local anaesthetic, which will numb your mouth. This means you will be awake during the procedure but won’t feel any pain. How long the removal of a tooth takes depends on the problem with it and how and where it sits in your mouth.

To extract the tooth, we will widen your tooth socket and then softly rock the tooth to loosen it, to the point where it can be pulled out. After the removal of a tooth, a gauze pad will be placed into the socket to stop the bleeding. Dissolvable stitches may be required in some instances.

One or more teeth can be removed per appointment. Sometimes it’s advisable to do more than one, sometimes not. We will discuss this with you and you can let us know what you’re most comfortable with. We can replace an extracted tooth or teeth for you. For example, with a dental bridge or dental implant. We will explain the replacement options to you at your appointment.