Question:
My upper wisdom teeth were removed by my dentist when I was 22 years old.
Both upper teeth erupted fully but were hitting my bottom jaw, so my dentist
just pulled them out under local anesthetic. I am now 28 years old and
still have my lower wisdom teeth. One tooth has erupted completely. The
other tooth is partially covered with a small flap of skin. I have not had
any problems with these teeth. However, my dentist referred me to an oral
surgeon for a consultation. I don't feel like the oral surgeon gave me
enough compelling reasons to have them extracted especially since he said
that there is a small chance that the extractions could result in nerve
damage. Should I have them removed? Do the pros outweigh the cons at my
age?
Answer:
go back to your dentist. he is the quarterback of your oral health care
delivery team. tell him just what you said here and see what his advice is.
as a general rule, partially erupted wizzies should be removed. fully erupted
might be left as is unless a problem develops.
I just went through an extremely painful wisdom tooth extraction (5
teeth--four wisdom,1 supernumerary above my right upper wisdom tooth). So,
you might take my opinions with a grain of salt, since the pain is still
fresh in my mind.
However, while two of the teeth caused me pain and complications, the two
wisdoms that were fully and near-fully erupted caused almost no pain and no
complications. One was fully in, and the other was partially in--being
covered by a flap of gum.
It is in this one with a flap of gum that I actually got a bad infection
about 2 weeks before the oral surgery. The dentist said it was just
unavoidable that I get food stuck in there. He actually pulled some pieces
of food out when I went to see him. I could not believe how painful that
infection was. Antibiotics took care of it, but it could have easily
returned anytime, as I just could not really clean it very well.
So, does that mean you should get them out? No, not necessarily. However,
the flap of gum over the wisdom tooth is a real threat for infection.
Whether the other one will ever cause problems--nobody knows. I suspect
they are going on the idea that if you're going to have one pulled, why not
do them all at the same time.
I will tell you that I really wish I had done mine at 21, instead of 31.
However, if I could do it over, I might not have had one fully impacted
tooth, or the supernumerary removed. Both caused complications (impacted
has left me with a minorly numb tongue and the supernumerary left me with a
hole to my sinus for a couple days). I think the risk of nerve damage is
really highest when they are impacted.
