Meet TheWisdomToothDoc™!
Dr. James Babiuk ─ Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
I prioritize your safety and satisfaction above all else. My commitment to you is to provide you with the best quality care and to ensure that your needs are met and exceeded. You can always count on me to keep you informed, advise you on all treatment options, and address your concerns. I strive to go above and beyond to make sure you receive the highest quality of oral surgical care.
Dr. James Babiuk
My Admission to You
“You are my people. You see, not long ago, My wife passed away from cancer and I became a widowed husband of two daughters.
It was one of the most challenging periods of my life as a parent and professional.
I knew the only way I would get through it was was turning this energy into a force to do good things both for my daughters and my patients.
And as a result, I live by two main principles.
- To provide you, my patient, with the finest quality care I would give my own family; and
- To give my daughters the life they deserve.
My life is devoted to providing you or your children with the same level of care I have delivered to mine.”
Why you should choose Dr. Babiuk as your oral and maxillofacial surgeon...
Our practice is unique in that we place more emphasis on you.
We devise a plan that ensures your needs are met. Because our focus is on YOU, we do not simply repeat the same actions; we do what is best for you at any given time.
For instance, we frequently need to alter therapies after considering current medications, health issues, or poor past experiences. The entire staff shares my commitment to your circumstances because they recognize its significance.
The greatest advantage of our practice style is the prevention of serious problems. For instance, many osteoporosis medications might make extractions more difficult because they can impede bone healing, resulting in the death of sections of the jawbone. By considering your situation, we can circumvent considerable obstacles.
In addition, post-procedure discomfort and optimal outcomes can be achieved by adapting and personalizing your treatment plans to your anticipated recovery process, so enhancing your experience from start to finish. In closing, we want you to have a great experience, in part because we feel it will drive you to maintain excellent oral health and proper dental hygiene.
Education
- Residency at Northwestern University Dental School
- Residency in Hospital Dentistry at Loyola University in Chicago
- Oral surgery residency at Cook County/Stroger Hospital in Chicago
experience
- 19 years teaching oral surgery and outpatient anesthesia to residents in training
- 25 years of private practice
- 20 years of anesthesia
- Over 200,000 teeth extracted
- 5000+ operations
The Spark
Dr. Babiuk’s fascination with oral surgery began when he was approximately 11 years old.
He viewed a PBS video about a boy born with a serious facial abnormality in a developing nation. The show centered on the difficulties he encountered as a result of growing abnormalities in his upper and lower jaw, as well as the astonishing changes in appearance and function that oral surgery made possible.
Prior to watching that program, he had never heard of oral surgery and had no idea how detrimental jaw and teeth disorders could be. He quickly realized that he wanted to become an oral surgeon for the rest of his life.
Experience and Education
Dr. Babiuk graduated from high school in three years and then relocated from Western Canada to Chicago to attend Northwestern Dental School.
He worked hard to graduate at the top of his class and then completed a one-year residency in hospital dentistry at Loyola University Chicago.
Following that, he completed an oral surgery residency at Cook County/Stroger Hospital in Chicago, where he spent 19 years instructing residents in oral surgery and outpatient anesthesia.
Dr. Babiuk’s stay at Loyola University changed his perspective on the critical links between general health and oral health, which many dental schools do not properly cover.
The average dentist is unaware of the importance of the link between dental health and general health until they graduate from dental school and begin caring for patients in the real world.
In this regard, his residency training put him ahead of the curve, and it was a pleasure to pass on this information to others in his teaching role at Cook County/Stroger Hospital.
Applicants without extra training were rarely approved, and when a resident came straight from dentistry school, their lack of understanding in this area was obvious. It’s quite difficult to keep up in an oral surgery training program if you don’t already have a basic awareness of the links between dental and general health.
He was able to make the most of his stay at Cook County/Stroger Hospital because of the information and expertise he learned at Loyola.
He was selected after he received his oral surgery diploma to extend his tenure there to teach oral surgery to new doctors, which he did from 1997 to 2016.
His hospital work experience was only part of his personal and professional purpose; the other, equally important part was the effort he put into creating his own oral surgery clinic, where he has specialized in wisdom teeth extraction and dental implant placement since 1998.
Fun Facts About Dr. Babiuk
Dr. Babiuk considers himself a “car guy” who also enjoys riding motorcycles. He will tell you stories about Route 66 if you ask him to. Hockey is a spiritual experience for Canadians. He is a Bears fan who has been on the season ticket waiting list since the early 1990s and will do so for many years to come. He’s one of those foodie types that fantasizes about becoming the “idea guy” behind a successful restaurant. His favorite cuisine is barbecue, particularly Texas-style barbecue. The successes of his two girls are the most important things in his life. They are fierce, independent and one-of-a-kind. He enjoys observing his children as they find their way in the world. Mostly.
You get safe, comfortable, and proven care
Frequently asked questions
TheWisdomToothDoc™ technique focuses on minimizing pain and swelling. Although there may be some redness and swelling, we will give you the tools and information you need to get better quickly and comfortably. We will also text you after the procedure to see how you are doing, and you will be able to call our office if you have any questions or concerns.
For most people, they are going to be a little dizzy and a little sleepy for the rest of the day after wisdom teeth removal. There will be an effect on coordination for about 24 hours, so we don’t want people driving, riding a motorcycle, or using power tools, or doing anything else where they could hurt themselves. The residual effect on coordination persists a little bit longer than the residual dizziness and sleepiness, so it’s really important that people follow those restrictions for 24 hours. For reasons unknown, sometimes we will see adolescent female patients become more emotional than usual for a few hours after sedation. It is important to note that the outlandish behavior of people after wisdom tooth extraction typically portrayed on YouTube is not at all a realistic depiction.
The question of whether or not everyone needs to have their wisdom teeth removed has been debated for many years amongst dental professionals. The reality is that nearly everyone will need their wisdom teeth out at some point. Most people need them out when they’re young because they don’t have enough room for them to come in, so they get stuck and cause problems. Some people will have enough room for the teeth to come into the mouth but then they struggle to clean them, leading to problems like tooth decay and gum disease. This leads to the need for removal later in life.
The typical wisdom tooth removal patient is a high school or college aged young adult, who has spacing issues. These arise due to genetics, due to improved dental care practices, and due to modern dietary issues. In the past, no one needed wisdom teeth removal. Most people didn’t have access to dental care, so teeth would break or fall out, the remaining teeth would shift, and there was enough room for the wisdom teeth to come in without problems. As dental care has improved, people have stopped losing teeth at a young age.
Another big factor is the modern diet. People used to eat food that they picked and prepared on their own. Grains were milled between rocks. Leaves and stems were in their vegetables. So they ate dirt and sand and their diet was very abrasive. This has changed and now what we eat is very processed. Our teeth no longer wear from our diet. If we look at the work of the anthropologists who examine human skulls, all the teeth are worn and smaller, so there was room for the wisdom teeth. Human jawbones are actually about 25% smaller now than they were just a couple of thousand years ago because growth is affected by function. Diet was more abrasive, so people needed more chewing force in order to eat. That meant that the jaw would grow bigger and there was more room for more teeth to come in. The average mouth today doesn’t have enough room. The wisdom teeth will form, get stuck, and end up partly covered by bone or by gum tissue.
If you put off getting your wisdom teeth out for too long, your jawbone and teeth start to harden. As the third molars get harder, they get harder to take out, and the process gets more painful and complicated.
The cost of wisdom tooth removal depends on the position of the tooth, whether it has erupted, whether it is stuck, whether it’s angled, and whether it is covered by bone or gum tissue. There are a lot of factors and choice plays a role. Some people only want shots of local anesthetic. Most people have trouble tolerating such an intense removal, so the best way to do things is under sedation. The cost can vary from $1,500 to $5,000, depending on each individual patient’s situation. Typically, dental insurance will cover some of the procedure but not all of it. Some medical plans will provide some coverage as well. Our financial team will help you to get the maximum benefits possible.
If you wait, you are also more likely to have problems after the surgery, such as sinus problems, heavy bleeding, tooth roots being damaged in healthy teeth, and limited jaw movement. You might only have these symptoms for a few days or for the rest of your life.
The majority of individuals have unexposed wisdoms with a high risk of plaque and foreign debris blockage. Consequently, the tissue may become infected. It can also lead to improper tooth positioning and mouth development. Click here for more information.
For most young people, wisdom teeth don’t fully emerge. They are typically angled in a complex position. It’s not a straight up and down erupted tooth. In order to fully expose the tooth to remove it, we have to lift the gum tissue. We typically have to make space between the tooth and the bone in order to free it. Many times, we actually have to cut the tooth into pieces to remove it.
In older people who have been functioning on the teeth, it becomes harder to remove them because of the changes in bone that happen with age. In your typical 16 year old, the bone is still very flexible and you don’t have to do as much removal of bone because you can get the bone to flex and create space, and then return to where it was. In the average person over 35, there’s no flexibility of bone left, so there’s typically a need for bone removal to break the attachment of the tooth to the bone.
Should ask questions
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.
- Phone call to set up your consultation
- Consultation
- X-rays and evaluation
- Pre anesthetic evaluation, Health history, anatomy review
- Customized procedure and course of action using “Full Big Picture Evaluation”
- In Office sedation
- Procedure/Leave Same Day
- 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.
Address:
3209 Fiday Rd, Joliet, IL 60431, United States
Second Location:
TheWisdomToothDoc™
1404 Aquarius Circle, Suite A
Ottawa, Illinois 61350
Call: (815) 254-1560
Text: (815) 473-3560
Fax: (815) 254-1562
Email: info@wisdomteethjoliet.com
Hours:
By appointment. Click here to Call us.
Click here to schedule your consultation in our Joliet office.
Click here to schedule your consultation in our Ottawa office.
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