Impacted Wisdom Teeth
The last teeth to emerge into an adult mouth are the third molars, often referred to as the wisdom teeth. It’s rarely a problem for an adult mouth to accommodate the first and second molars, but by the time the third molars are ready, they may lack sufficient room for all six sizeable molars. This is especially common in people with smaller mouths. In some cases, the wisdom teeth do erupt completely, in the farthest reaches at the back of the jaw. While there may be room for these teeth in larger mouths, it’s difficult for anyone to effectively brush and floss back there, and extracting these fully erupted teeth could help keep the area healthy and prevent possible overcrowding. Your dentist will monitor your wisdom teeth as they develop and begin to erupt, informing you about potential risks and letting you make an informed treatment decision.
When the third molars are unable to fully emerge through the jawbone, the gums, or both, they are impacted. Because there isn’t room for these impacted wisdom teeth to emerge properly, they may be growing in at odd angles, only partly erupted, or completely trapped beneath the bone and gums, and dentists will usually recommend extraction. Wisdom teeth can be partly impacted or fully impacted, and those that do grow through the teeth and gums can grow at dangerous angles, sometimes even growing sideways into their neighboring teeth and damaging the bite and the teeth themselves. Impacted wisdom teeth are more prone to infection, and the condition can be painful, but even when they aren’t causing any problems, many dentists prefer to remove them as a preventative measure.
If you haven’t had your wisdom teeth removed and are experiencing symptoms in the area of the far molars, see your dentist. Symptoms are similar to the symptoms of gum disease and other oral and dental conditions and include swelling and redness in the gums, bleeding gums, jaw pain, a bad smell or odor in the mouth, or difficulty opening the mouth. These symptoms could signify that a partially erupted wisdom tooth is pressing against adjacent teeth or mean that there is gum disease or decay in or around the impacted tooth. Symptoms might also indicate infection in an impacted tooth beneath the bone or the presence of cysts that are pressing into the impacted teeth. Extraction of these teeth can provide complete relief, and the extraction of asymptomatic wisdom teeth and impacted wisdom teeth can prevent similar issues from arising. There’s nothing you can do to prevent a wisdom tooth from becoming impacted, but regular dental checkups can tell your dentist a lot about the state of your wisdom teeth as they begin to emerge, and periodic x-rays can indicate impacted wisdom teeth before they present any symptoms.
The process for removing impacted wisdom teeth is an outpatient procedure that allows most patients to go home the same day. Patients can choose the type of anesthesia they prefer, opting for sedation anesthesia if they’d prefer to be unconscious for their extraction. For the extraction, the oral surgeon makes an incision in the gums and drills out any bone that might be blocking the impacted tooth before fully removing the tooth and its roots and then closing the wound. It’s normal to feel some discomfort and have minor bleeding or swelling after wisdom teeth extraction, but with proper aftercare, most people recover fully within a couple of weeks, preventing a lifetime of potential problems with a simple, routine procedure.