Should I Remove All of My Wisdom Teeth or Just the Ones that Bother Me?
I have four impacted wisdom teeth. Two are infected. My dentist wants to know if I want to extract all of the impacted wisdom teeth or just the infected ones. One complication is that the bottom teeth are past a nerve. One of those is infected, the other isn’t. Here are the choices my dentist gave me and I’m feeling frozen and I cannot decide. Is one of these better than the other? He did tell me that there is a chance of nerve damage with the bottom teeth.
1. Take out all of the wisdom teeth no matter what.
2. Take out all of the wisdom teeth, but leave the roots of the bottom ones and hope the infection doesn’t spread to the roots. If it does, then he can go back in and take out the root.
3. Only take out the infected teeth, but remove the whole thing.
4. Only take out the infected teeth, but only remove the crowns of the one by the nerve.
Oh! My dentist said my age matters, but didn’t explain why. I’m 23 right now. Help.
Trudy
Dear Trudy,
Let’s start with the age issue because it will have a huge impact on your decision. The late teens to early twenties are the best time to extract your wisdom teeth. By the time you hit 30 years of age, your chances of complications double. Then, every five years, they double again. That means you are currently at a great age to extract your wisdom teeth, but that won’t last long.
Couple that with the fact that your impacted wisdom teeth are very likely to develop a problem later in life, then I strongly recommend that you have them all extracted while you are in the safest age range. You don’t want to wait until you have a dental emergency on your hands. The only question is whether or not to leave the root on those bottom teeth near the nerve.
Leaving the root is a reasonable solution. However, I do not recommend that you do not leave the whole root. I would just leave the tip and not the entire root. This reduces the chances of infection or your body having a problem with it being there.
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Will Crest Whitestrips Damage My Porcelain Veneers?
I had four porcelain veneers placed. I like them a lot but my other teeth look so dark next to them. If I got something like Crest Whitestrips to try to whiten my natural teeth, would they damage my porcelain veneers?
Camilla
Dear Camilla,
I am glad you like your porcelain veneers. It is a shame that your dentist did not plan your case better. In fact, I am a bit frustrated on your behalf. He could have avoided you having any color differences.
Most people have smiles that are eight to ten teeth wide, so he should have known that four veneers would have a color discrepancy. The solution to that, when you can’t get ten teeth veneered, is to have professional teeth whitening done ahead of time. This ensures that your smile blends together naturally.
While Crest Whitestrips will not damage your porcelain veneers, I do not think that you will get the results you are hoping for out of them. First, the whitening gel that they use is very weak. It would take a large number of boxes to see any real results. Second, they are only designed to cover the front six teeth. As four of those are veneered, you’ll only be getting two teeth with any gel on them. You could wear two sets or cut them in half, but that will not help with the strength.
In your place, I would ask your dentist to make custom teeth whitening trays for you. They could even be designed to go around your porcelain veneers. The gel your dentist can provide you is significantly stronger than anything you would get over the counter, which means your teeth will whiten much sooner.
This blog is brought to you by Moline Dentist Dr. Thomas Goebel.
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