Many surgeries require oral surgeons to come into close contact with the nerves in your jaw. If you’re interested in dental implants or other reconstructive surgeries, you may have to discuss pre-emptive nerve repositioning surgeries. These surgeries tend to relocate the inferior alveolar nerve, which ensures you can feel through your lower lip and chin.
While nerve repositioning surgeries can prove invasive, they’re designed to preserve the facial sensations with which you’re familiar. If you have an implantation coming up, or if you need to undergo reconstructive treatments for other reasons, our oral surgeons at Elizabeth Oral Surgery Group can break down why you might need nerve repositioning treatments and what you can expect from them.
When Do You Need Nerve Repositioning Surgery?
Dental surgeons may recommend nerve repositioning surgeries ahead of dental implants. Dental implants can compromise the integrity of a person’s nerves and impact their ability to feel their lower lip and jaw. Nerve repositioning surgeries ensure that parties with implants can retain their ability to feel without compromising their need for dental treatments. In other words, nerve repositioning surgery helps a patient retain the function of their lip and jaw.
What Can You Expect From Nerve Repositioning Surgery?
Dental surgeons will use anesthetics to facilitate nerve repositioning surgeries. Once a patient is comfortable, surgeons will remove part of the outer, lower jaw bone to gain access to the inferior alveolar nerve. Surgeons then isolate that nerve, relocating it until surgeons finish putting a person’s implants in place. When the implants are secure, surgeons will replace the nerve in a non-painful, functional area.
Surgeons then use a bone graft to replace the bone removed to complete the surgery. Unfortunately, nerve repositioning surgery isn’t perfect. Some patients report experiencing a temporary numbness when they wake up after treatment. Others report a prolonged numbness or marked decrease in sensation in their lower lip and jaw. However, without the treatment, these parties may lose feeling in their lower lip and jaw entirely.
How Do You Recover From Nerve Repositioning Surgery?
Recovering from nerve repositioning surgery requires time and rest. It may also require a little physical therapy, depending on how long it takes for you to adjust to your implants and regain sensation in your lip and jaw. Fortunately, the oral surgeons who performed your surgery should provide you with a treatment plan that outlines what steps you should take to streamline your recovery.
Most nerve repositioning surgeries and dental implant practices require participants to keep to strict oral hygiene regimens following their treatment. If you have any questions about your regime, dietary restrictions, or other post-treatment essentials, make sure you ask for clarification either before or after your treatments.
How Does Nerve Repositioning Surgery Benefit Your Oral Health?
Nerve repositioning surgery does come with risks, but the practice is overall beneficial to your oral health, especially when you’re investing in dental implants. The process makes placing your dental implants significantly easier and reduces the amount of pain you’re likely to be in after your treatment. Failure to reposition your nerve would see your implants loosen and your nerve pinch.
Also, oral surgeons approach each nerve repositioning with unique perspectives. They accommodate your features and comfort instead of applying a catch-all strategy to the process. You can wake from surgery in the care of surgeons who understood your concerns and used their experience to accommodate your needs.
Discuss Nerve Repositioning Surgeries With Our Experienced Oral Surgeons
Nerve repositioning surgeries may prove invasive, but they’re preservative in nature. Our oral surgeons at Elizabeth Oral Surgery Group know how to carefully move your sensitive nerves away from any pressures, pinches, or discomforts presented by upcoming implantation treatments or other reconstructive surgeries.
Are you ready to learn more about our approach to nerve repositioning treatments? Call (908) 663-5309 or contact us online to book a consultation with our oral surgeons.
