Avoiding Your Wisdom Teeth?

By Snehal Patel, DDS, MD

Wisdom teeth are a common problem for most people. Due to insufficient space in the mouth, these teeth are often malpositioned creating an environment for food and debris to accumulate.

Chronic infections can result, often presenting as periodic dull pain. Your dentist may have recommended that your wisdom teeth be removed. But, the pain often resolves, and you may have put off having them removed.

This can lead to problems for you in the future. A chronic infection often is destructive over time to the bone supporting the teeth in front of your wisdom teeth even though you feel no pain. Also, this periodic pain may suddenly appear with severe intensity and significant facial swelling.

Having your wisdom teeth removed at a later age has also been proven to lead to a longer and more complicated recovery period. Furthermore, when the wisdom teeth become severely infected, the procedure is often more difficult and uncomfortable.

For these reasons, it is commonly recommended to have your wisdom teeth removed while they are not acutely infected. There are many options of office sedation that most people choose to have these teeth comfortably removed at an early age or as soon as they are a problem.

Contact your local oral surgeon to see if you should have your wisdom teeth removed.