Wisdom Tooth Removal
Almost all of us have four wisdom teeth that erupt sometime during our mid-teens the to late twenties. Unfortunately, sometimes these teeth can become impact within the bone, wedged against their neighboring teeth, or simply develop cysts around them. When those situations happen, it can lead to chronic jaw and tooth pain.
Removing problematic and painful wisdom teeth can help you reduce the extent of damage to your neighboring teeth, helping you enjoy a healthy and pain-free smile for years to come.
Why Does it Matter?
Even if your wisdom teeth erupt part of the way, their location in your mouth makes them extremely difficult to clean. For this reason, it’s common to see wisdom teeth develop cavities and gum disease infections that spread into the adjacent teeth.
Proactively removing impacted, partially erupted, or decaying wisdom teeth helps to protect the remaining healthy teeth in your mouth.
Symptoms of Problematic Wisdom Teeth
- Pain
- Swelling
- Crowding in your other teeth
- Food impaction
- Partial tooth eruption
- Cysts visible on x-rays
- Difficulty open and closing your mouth
Exam and X-ray
During your wisdom tooth evaluation, we’ll take a panoramic X-ray that allows us to see the entire structure of your jaw and any unerupted teeth. This larger image helps us to fully evaluate the extent of any impactions, cysts, or damage to surrounding structures around your wisdom teeth.
Is Extracting it Best?
A proactive wisdom tooth removal for problem-prone areas can help you avoid unnecessary pain and infections. Depending on the position of each respective wisdom tooth, sedation is sometimes recommended.
Our dentists will work with you one-on-one to determine the most appropriate care plan for you or your teen’s situation. However, in many cases, it’s best to remove the wisdom tooth before pain is ever a concern.
Request your routine exam today to find out how we can help.