Confused About Wisdom Teeth? Consult Your Dentist.

Long after visits from the tooth fairy cease, and your baby teeth have all erupted, fallen out, and been replaced, four miserly molars lurk in the back of your mouth. These teeth of wisdom wait patiently until you've matured to the ripened age range of seventeen to twenty-five years old.

For one lucky third of the population, wisdom teeth do not set in. These fortunate individuals never experience the myriads of problems that can occur when wisdom teeth become impacted. By failing to break through the gum line, these teeth can become misaligned in many directions and affect the growth of the surrounding teeth. Depending on the direction of the impaction, wisdom teeth may cause crowding or malocclusion throughout the mouth, which can lead to tooth decay and skeletal disharmony in the face.

The difficulty of extraction of a wisdom tooth varies depending on both the direction of the misalignment and the tooth's location on the upper or lower jaw. When a partial eruption occurs, flaps of gum called operculum extend over the tooth's surface and often accumulate bacteria and infections. Partial eruptions can also cause problems such as swelling, halitosis, and redness in the gum lines. If these small bacteria colonies persist untreated, they can lead to the development of inflammatory cysts.

This surgical extraction can be accomplished by your dentist under a general anesthetic while making an incision in the mouth and removing a small part of the jawbone tissue with a surgical drill. Oftentimes the tooth is fractured into small pieces in order to make the removal easier. After the tooth has been extracted, the wound bleeds continuously for roughly twenty-four hours until a clot forms in the socket. After about a week and a half gum tissue forms, and after seven months or so bone tissue reforms. While the blood clot is forming, it can be detrimental to rinse or clean the mouth too much. Directly after the surgery gauze pads are inserted in the mouth directly atop the points of extraction to aid in the healing process.

Problems to keep an eye out for during this sensitive time of healing include dry socket, minor swelling, bruising, infection, excessive bleeding, remaining bone fragments breaking through the gum line, and possible nerve injuries in the mouth. If any of these problems persist, contact your dentist immediately. Antibiotics prescribed by your dentist and ingested before and after surgery can lower the risk of any infections. Dry socket is one of the most common and easily fixable of these ailments; it usually occurs when the blood clot forming over the extraction wound is agitated. Patients who experience dry socket will experience a sharp increase in pain around three days after the procedure.
For the forty-eight hours directly after surgery, only soft foods such as milkshakes, apple sauce, puddings, canned fruits, and soups should be consumed. Before going to bed, it is a good idea to rinse out your mouth with warm water and sea salts. For the first day after surgery, ice packs can be applied to your cheeks to aid with swelling reduction, and after three days a heating pad can be applied as well.