Dr. Babiuk is amongst the state’s best qualified oral and face surgeons. He has extracted over 150,000 teeth and trained one of the leading hospitals, Cook County. In addition to teaching anesthesia and surgery at Cook County, he has more than 25 years of expertise in private practice and 20 years of experience in anesthesia. Dr. Babiuk specializes in extractions of wisdom teeth and has a lower rate of complications, post-operative infections, and dry sockets than the national average. Read more about Dr. Babiuk here.

I always recommended that sedation be used unless someone has a medical reason why they’re not a sedation candidate. Sedation is always given as the best option. It’s better to not be aware of what’s going on, in order to have a good experience. If someone has a bad experience, they may develop a fear of dentistry and end up avoiding dental care in the future, which will negatively affect their overall dental health for their lifetime.

If, for whatever reason, someone feels anxiety over the sedation process, they may choose to not be sedated. There are two choices when they’re not sedated. One is using the local anesthetic, Novocaine. They will feel pressure, vibration, water, and the initial anesthetic injections. There is one step between that and being sedated. There’s a mask over their nose and they are breathing a mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide, laughing gas. The result is very minor sedation. You can only feel 90% of what is happening instead of 100%.

If someone decides against sedation, we can’t avoid the use of opioids. Under sedation, we have intravenous line access. We can give medications that are going to reduce the inflammation and pain for many hours after the procedure. Without sedation, we don’t have this access and we can’t give those medications. The average person is then going to need much stronger pain medication.

A General Dentist is the primary care doctor of your oral health. They are trained to restore teeth back to normal form and function. They are trained to replace missing teeth. They have very little exposure to tooth extractions in dental school. Most have only done a handful before graduation. They also have no training in managing surgical complications. While the likelihood of of complications is low, they should be handled by experienced hands. When someone has a problem with an extraction by their dentist, they will need to then find an expert to take over.

Experience is an important consideration for any procedure. The added experience of a seasoned professional reduces your risks and improves your recovery experience.

Not to sound too sarcastic, but, would you want your primary care doctor to perform your bypass?

Since the extraction is generally performed under sedation, you’re unaware of the procedure even being done. We start an IV line and we give you some medications. You fall asleep and we give you local anesthetic while you’re asleep, so you don’t have any awareness of the injections. The areas are numb in addition to the sedation. After the procedure, you wake up feeling numb, as if you had gone to the dentist for some fillings. The local anesthetic wears off over a period of a few hours.  We also place long acting local that lasts for 3 days. The sites won’t feel totally numb, instead there will be decreased sensation in the areas to decrease your discomfort.

For healthy people, the risk of an anesthetic problem is between one in 500,000 and one in one million. We are typically working with young, healthy people, which reduces the risk. When a procedure is done under sedation in the office, it is done with the exact same technique that would be used in a hospital operating room, with the same monitoring equipment. In order to be a sedation provider, you have to be trained in it. You need to have staff that is trained in managing emergencies and CPR. You constantly have to retrain and test. Realistically, the potential for an anesthetic problem in an oral surgery office while having wisdom teeth taken out under sedation is very low.

Dr. Babiuk and his staff are widely regarded as the foremost experts in wisdom tooth extractions. They take satisfaction in minimizing complications through careful patient evaluation and have contingency plans for most, if not all, possible complications.

A typical clinic will give opioid prescriptions to mostly young and healthy patients after a procedure. Opioids are one of the most addictive substances available, and prolonged use can be fatal. We are one of the few clinics engaged in the fight against opiates and have carefully developed a safe, comfortable, and opiates-free procedure. Click here for more information.

We prioritize your safety and treat you as if you were a member of our family. We take the time to personalize your procedure and limit your exposure to potentially addictive drugs. Click here for more information on Dr. Babiuk.

We have a transparent and organized system for handling new patients.

1. Phone call to set up your consultation
2. Consultation
3. X-rays and evaluation
4. Pre anesthetic evaluation, Health history, anatomy review
5. Customized procedure and course of action using “Full Big Picture Evaluation”
6. In Office sedation
7. Procedure/Leave Same Day
8. Post Op Evaluation,  Recovery, and Text Message Updates

From the initial phone conversation to the post-operative appointment, we take pride in ensuring your satisfaction. Call us today!

After wisdom teeth removal, most patients will see a period of swelling that peaks after about three days. The swelling resolves over a period of about a week and a half. The inflammation that happens from the surgery will lead to pain and discomfort. The average patient of TheWisdomToothDoc will take  Tylenol and prescription strength ibuprofen, at the same time, every 6 hours for the first four days. After this we have them transition to an as needed basis.

Typically, a patient who has her wisdom teeth out on Friday will be able to go to work or school on Monday. They will be a little uncomfortable, but still able to do what they would normally do. The average patient will get to the point where they feel normal again within two weeks. Gum tissue healing is about a six-week process. The bone underneath the gum tissue takes about six months for full healing. Those processes are typically not felt by the patient at all.