Videos

Hello there, my name is Dr. Bryan McLelland, one of the surgeons at Liberty Oral and Facial Surgery with Doctor Brennan Olson.

Today I would like to answer some questions that I have had recently emailed from patients. The question was,

What’s the difference between a dentist and an oral and maxillofacial surgeon?

and

Why should I even consider going to an oral surgeon for the removal of my wisdom teeth or the placement of dental implants?

After dental school, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon will continue on and do an additional four to six or more years of specialized training to acquire and hone the surgical skills required to extract wisdom teeth and place dental implants with the utmost care and quality.

This training is hospital-based and includes a lot of practical hands-on training and didactic bookwork.

An oral and maxillofacial surgeon also limits their practice to the extraction of wisdom teeth, of other teeth for the placement of dental implants and all other related surgical procedures.

So day in and day out, their skills continue to improve, making them the primary and best choice for removing wisdom teeth and placing dental implants. 

My name is Dr. Bryan McLelland with Liberty Oral and Facial Surgery.

I want to tell you about the virtual coach and the educational system that we have in place at Liberty Oral and Facial Surgery.

This comprehensive system which includes videos, written material, emails, and reminders, helps take a patient through the entire healing process with key emails and points of contact all the way.

This includes instructional videos which helped minimize complications and the rate of post-operative infections.

After implementing this system, our complication rate through lack of patient understanding and compliance dropped drastically.

Before this, we have tried all other typical measures to help patients understand how to get the best results.

This virtual coach system has single-handedly revolutionized our patient’s experience, easing their way and reducing complications by reducing dry sockets and reducing post-operative infections.

Make an appointment with us today.

My name is Dr. Bryan McLelland, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at Liberty Oral and Facial Surgery, in Post Falls, ID, and Spokane Valley, WA.

Today I would like to talk to you about the reduction in the use of narcotics and opioids after oral and maxillofacial surgery.

At Liberty Oral and Facial Surgery Dr. McClelland and Dr. Olson will use Exparel in addition to the regular dental local anesthetic.

How does it work?

The regular or typical dental local anesthetic is administered as usual, and then an ultra-long-lasting local called Exparel is given after the procedure.

Exparel is encapsulated Bupivacaine and I want you to think of it as a time-released local anesthetic.

After the regular dental local anesthetic wears off on that first day, a patient will experience 70 to 75% less pain, swelling, and tenderness by the use of this ultra-long-lasting local anesthetic

This also corresponds to reducing the consumption of narcotics or opioid pain medicine by the same amount.

At Liberty Oral and Facial Surgery, we use Exparel routinely on our patients to reduce the consumption of narcotics.

I’m very confident in stating that over our last three-plus years of use of this medication, there’s been a remarkable decrease in the number of narcotics consumed by our patients and the community.

We’re very proud at Liberty Oral and Facial Surgery to be the only practice we know of in this area that routinely administers Exparel to our patients.

This should help the average person decide where to go to receive their oral and maxillofacial surgery, including removing wisdom teeth and dental implants.