At times you may feel like your wisdom teeth exist simply to cause you pain and grief. A wisdom tooth, or ‘Molars’, are a late erupting tooth which may require for you to undergo either a simple extraction or a surgical extraction. We know it can be nerve-wrecking, especially for anxious patients. Count on our experienced staff to get you through this ordeal, we are here to help answer all your questions and concerns regarding your wisdom tooth extraction. We will recommend an extraction only when it is absolutely needed and cannot be avoided. Here are some reasons as to why an extraction may be required.
Why problems can arise with wisdom teeth
Don’t procrastinate with your wisdom teeth removal. A dental mistake most patients make is putting off their wisdom tooth’s extraction until it starts to affect the rest of your teeth. This will inevitably result in a more expensive fix and not to mention could result in you having to endure unnecessary pain which could have been avoided easily by scheduling in a timely extraction of the problem tooth. Between the ages of 17 and 25, wisdom teeth are said to develop at the back of your mouth, behind all the other teeth.
One should erupt at every corner of the mouth and these will be the last ‘Molars’ to develop. Often your jaw has fully developed by the age of 18 and so you may face numerous issues due to your wisdom teeth not having enough space to grow.
Bacteria traps
When your wisdom teeth come through at an odd angle, because it simply doesn’t have enough space to develop right at the back of your jaw, and gets stuck below the surface of the gum, we call this an ‘impacted’ tooth. Ignoring this issue is not so wise. Wisdom teeth extraction can prevent your teeth from rotting due to bacteria traps that are most likely to crop up when you have an impacted or partially impacted tooth.
Because your wisdom teeth grow in a position that is quite challenging to reach with your toothbrush, bacteria would inevitably get trapped and build up around this site causing tooth decay. Extraction in this case is absolutely necessary since the bacteria build up and decay would lead to an infection in your mouth that could spread to even your healthy teeth. To avoid such complications, make sure your wisdom teeth have been looked at by a professional dentist.
Crooked teeth
Due to the lack of space for wisdom teeth, in your jaw, they can often come through at unusual angles, pressing up against their neighbours and causing misalignment, overcrowding and, eventually, causing tooth sensitivity, pain and discomfort. With the help of x-rays, we can now tell from an early stage the route your wisdom teeth are taking. If it seems like their path will cause issues, it is always sensible to have them removed before they start causing your other teeth to go out of whack.
We also recommend having them removed before any orthodontic work. Braces are used to adjust crooked and crowded teeth and basically spread them out more evenly. At the end of the process, there is typically less room in the mouth for wisdom teeth than there was before. If we do not get rid of the wisdom teeth at this stage, it is likely their growth will undo all the good orthodontic work.
Orthodontics
As mentioned before, we recommend to have your wisdom teeth extracted prior to you undergoing any orthodontic treatment. It’s possible that if they erupt later on, they may undo the work of your braces.
What can happen if I don’t have my wisdom teeth removed?
If nothing is amiss with your wisdom teeth, then you can keep them for life without an issue. However, if problems such as dental pain, infection, tooth overcrowding arise and you do not have them attended to, you may end up losing more than just your wisdom teeth.
If one tooth becomes infected, other teeth around it can also suffer damaging consequences. Losing a wisdom tooth is not a big deal; we do not ‘need’ them. But if they are deteriorating and have been left untreated, you could end up losing more useful teeth around them.
Poor oral hygiene can be the root of many complications later in life. It is important that we do our best to keep the teeth we have from an early age.
When teeth become overcrowded and misaligned due to not having enough space to fit your wisdom teeth in, it is much harder to adequately clean between them as they are jammed against one another. This leads to the build-up of bacteria, leading to infection and could even result in you having to lose good and healthy teeth that were once completely strong and fine, but have deteriorated due to the decay that has set in around your impacted wisdom teeth.
So, do you have to get your wisdom teeth extracted? If you are worried about the impact your wisdom teeth might have, book an appointment with our friendly team now.
