Today, I have completed extraction of two impacted wisdom teeth. I would need to perform surgery to take those two teeth out. At the end of the procedure, I was exhausted but I believe it is worth it. Generally, impacted wisdom teeth would often have developed problems in the long term. By removing it in time, this will prevent any potential big problems in the future.
In some occasion, the wisdom tooth was grown in the bad position in relation to the other tooth. It could be growing side way or horizontally impacted Then the wisdom tooth would often push against the the toot anterior to it and causes the rest of the teeth in the jaw to shift. Crowding would result and this in turn would cause the food impaction in between the teeth.
Bacteria grows off the food debris jammed in between the wisdom tooth and the adjacent tooth, and causes infection and inflammation to the gum tissue around the wisdom tooth. This infection is called pericoronitis and will cause severe pain and discomfort if left untreated.
Due to the most posterior location of wisdom tooth, it is not easy to gain access for the toothbrush to clean the area adequately. In addition, if the wisdom tooth is impacted, food impaction is the most severely in between the wisdom tooth and the tooth adjacent to it. This promotes increased likelihood of tooth cavity. If the wisdom tooth is impacted, the tooth cavity develops at the root area of the tooth. This is the area very difficult to get access to and to do the filling.
If the tooth cavity is deep, then the tooth would develop painful response and may become infected. Then root canal therapy would be needed to treat the infection.
More frequentlly, the impacted wisdom tooth would cause tooth cavity to the tooth adjacent to it. Some people think wisdom tooth is not functional and can be disposable, thus they tend to ignore the wisdom tooth. However, wisdom tooth can cause severe problem to the other tooth. For this reason, I generally recommend removal of wisdom tooth if the wisdom tooth is not growing in the good position.
Written by Daniel Tee, DDS, MS
Practicing General Dentist Serving Tempe, Chandler, Phoenix, Mesa, and Gilbert Arizona
