What is Wisdom Teeth Removal?
Wisdom teeth removal is important if these third molars are beginning to pose a problem to your oral health. Most patients will begin to develop their wisdom teeth around the time they reach adulthood. If you don’t have enough room for these molars to come in naturally, they become impacted underneath the gums. Impacted wisdom teeth can be painful and cause future oral health problems, so it’s often recommended that they be removed.
Why would Wisdom Teeth Removal be needed?
If you fail to remove impacted wisdom teeth, you may experience problems down the road when it comes to leaving them intact. Not only is it common to have pain and swelling around the area of the back of the mouth, but these wisdom teeth can push against the other molars, causing problems with overcrowding and damaged dentition. Some patients even experience recurrent headaches, sinus infections and earaches as a result of infected, inflamed or otherwise impacted wisdom teeth.
Who is a candidate for Wisdom Teeth Removal?
The best way to spot a patient’s wisdom teeth is on a special dental x-ray known as a panoramic. This x-ray allows us to see your entire mouth and the location of your wisdom teeth. If you have impacted wisdom teeth, it is better to get them extracted sooner rather than later. If you’re already experiencing wisdom tooth-related problems, you should consider having the teeth removed.
What happens during Wisdom Teeth Removal?
To begin, we will numb the area of the mouth where the wisdom tooth is located. We may recommend full sedation to improve your experience while in the office and for more invasive surgeries. We then make an incision through the gums, remove the underlying tooth and place sutures to seal the gums. The process is repeated for any other wisdom teeth that need to be removed. You will be given aftercare instructions that are important in helping your mouth to heal. Some pain, tenderness and swelling is to be expected for a few days following surgery.
If you would like to come into our office to learn more about wisdom teeth removal and how it’s done, call us today to schedule a consultation appointment.