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.
This blog is brought to you by Moline Dentist Dr. Thomas Goebel.
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Will an Emergency Dentist Remove Wisdom Teeth?
My 22-year-old son is out of town. We’d always meant to get his wisdom teeth removed but something always seemed to get in the way and they weren’t really bothering him. Of course, now that he is in a different state visiting relatives everything blows up. One of his wisdom teeth is giving him a lot of pain. It is inflamed as well as the gums behind it. He’s been taking ibuprofen but it only helps temporarily. If I sent him to an emergency dentist would they remove his wisdom teeth?
Carolyn
Dear Carolyn,
There is no worse feeling than when we can’t be near our children when they need us. I’m sorry this is happening to your son while he is out of town. As to whether an emergency dentist will remove his teeth, it depends. They will certainly see him because he is in pain. They can get him out of pain. Then, if there is an infection they will likely schedule a follow-up to deal with that.
You didn’t mention if the tooth is erupted, partially erupted, or completely impacted. If it has not erupted, there is a possibility this is pericoronitis, which is just a fancy medical term for inflammation around the wisdom tooth. Sometimes when a tooth is partially erupted there is a flap of gums that traps food and bacteria and can inflame the gums and even lead to an infection. This flap can be removed, which lessens the likelihood of issues such as your son is facing.
Some dentists are comfortable and skilled at removing impacted wisdom teeth. Others will send him to an oral surgeon. Either way, when you are in pain from a tooth, it is always a good idea to get it checked out by a dentist to see how urgent the situation is and be advised on how to solve the problem.
This blog is brought to you by Moline Dentist Dr. Goebel.