|
Wisdom teeth are the last four molars most people grow. They come in relatively late in life – generally in the late teens or early twenties – and some people just don’t have room for them. If you’re one of that unlucky population, eventually you will probably have to have your wisdom teeth removed.
Why Wisdom Teeth Get Impacted
Most people simply don’t have jaws long enough to accommodate all the molars that want to grow in our mouths. Teeth are healthier and larger than they were historically, and jaws are a little smaller, both leading to a tendency for teeth to crowd. If you’re like me and have slightly-crooked teeth to begin with due to crowding, there’s no way your wisdom teeth can erupt in a healthy way. Usually, wisdom teeth are turned either toward the front of the mouth or erupt out the side of the jawbone. In either case, the other teeth in your jaw or the jawbone itself prevent the wisdom tooth from coming in straight and healthy.
Scientists today aren’t entirely certain why we have this seemingly-superfluous tooth that comes in so late in our lives. The leading theories have to do with the lifestyle of prehistoric man – due to a life of tough chewing (which stimulates jaw growth), coarse food (which stimulates tooth decay), and hard living (which can just get your teeth knocked out), prehistoric man usually had lost enough teeth by the time wisdom teeth come in that there was room for it.
Symptoms Caused by Impacted Wisdom Teeth
Impacted wisdom teeth can cause periodontal disease, leading to accelerated decay in healthy teeth as well as in the wisdom teeth. Since the area around the impacted tooth is inflamed because of the unhealthy pressure against the bone and other teeth, it can get tender, swollen, and even infected. It is possible for a cyst to form around the wisdom tooth or the bases of nearby teeth, which can lead to dental abcesses and serious medical problems.
Impacted wisdom teeth can also cause serious tooth crowding and misalignment. This sounds like a cosmetic issue, but can really be a serious health issue. When your teeth get misaligned, according to some recent studies, you tend to grind them more, whether you’re aware or not, or even when you’re sleeping. It’s hypothesized that this is your body’s way of trying to get your upper and lower bite to match properly. Grinding your teeth can lead to stress disorders, accelerated tooth decay, and headaches.
Impacted wisdom teeth can cause damage to other healthy teeth. They can damage the roots to the molars next to them, or cause accelerated tooth decay on the sides and beneath the gumline.
And impacted wisdom teeth can cause you to get sick. My impacted wisdom teeth gave me terrible headaches; I couldn’t talk on the phone because my jaw hurt. A secondary infection gave me a fever, and I just felt bad all the time.
If you have impacted wisdom teeth, you should get them out as soon as you can.
How to Get Wisdom Teeth Out
You must go to a dentist or an oral surgeon for this procedure. Be ready to have someone drive you home from the dentist; you may have to get a general anesthetic, and even if you don’t, you will probably feel woozy from local anesthetics and from the procedure itself. Don’t play with this; it is surgery. If you don’t feel like driving, don’t drive.
If you have an infection around the tooth, the dentist will probably prescribe a course of antibiotics and send you home for 4-7 days until the infection clears. This is because if you have an infection already, it can give you a blood infection during the removal of your tooth, and that can put you in the hospital.
When the dentist performs the procedure, he will have to have access to the very back part of your jaw. Some people gag; if you do, be sure to tell him! I promise, he’d rather be inconvenienced than thrown up on. He will probably try a local anesthetic first; if you feel any pain at all when he starts working, tell him immediately; a little pain in the initial stages turns into a LOT of pain shortly thereafter. You should feel no pain at all.
If he doesn’t cut it out, pulling the tooth requires strength. Be ready for a somewhat violent extraction – by which I mean wisdom teeth don’t come out without a fight. It took two dentists braced against my chair to get mine out; I didn’t feel a thing, but it was really strange. He may cut your tooth out, which should be a little more comfortable. If he cuts it out, you will have stitches put in your gums to suture the wounds; he will give you instructions on care and may have you return to have the stitches taken out and to have one final checkup.
Take care of yourself after the extraction. You will have a lot of swelling and some pain, although there will be immediate relief as well from any problems the tooth was causing you. Don’t eat or drink anything hot or very cold for a couple of days, and if you start having problems with pain, severe swelling, tenderness, or foul taste or smell around the extraction site, call your dentist immediately.
|
