My Oral Surgeon Warned Me About Wisdom Tooth Extraction

Health & Fitness

  • Author Katie Freimuth
  • Published July 25, 2011
  • Word count 585

When you hear the phrase dental surgery, do you cringe? I, for one, hate anything that has to do with a dentist. That's why I was so terrified when I found out that I would have to see an oral surgeon to get my wisdom teeth out. I was so nervous that I swear my mouth hurt more than a day before the surgery. That was all in my head, of course. I was told that I had impacted wisdom teeth and that there were some things I needed to do to manage the pain after the extraction. I then asked a million questions and found out a few things about wisdom tooth extraction.

Wisdom teeth usually show up around 17 to 24 years old. Usually, there are four of them, one on each end of your teeth. Very few people are able to keep their wisdom teeth, or third molars as they are sometimes called. Your dentist would probably recommend getting them out early on in life. If left too long, they can cause damage to your teeth, and be detrimental to your oral health. Wisdom tooth extraction is usually a simple procedure, but the longer you wait, the worse the surgery will be.

For some reason, most people's jaws are not big enough to keep wisdom teeth. If wisdom tooth extraction is neglected, the rest of the teeth will become crowded and sometimes moved into painful positions, and that's only if you have good luck. Many times, wisdom teeth will grow in sideways or at an angle because there is no space for it to grow in properly. These sideways teeth are what they call impacted wisdom teeth. All four of mine happened to be impacted. Impacted wisdom teeth will sometimes damage the teeth around them so it is very dangerous to ignore this problem. Once I learned this, I knew there was no way I was getting out of getting my wisdom teeth removed.

There was one last thing that my oral surgeon warned me about wisdom tooth extraction. He told me to really take care of my mouth after the procedure or I might get dry socket. Dry socket is when the blood clot comes out or fails to form in the hole left by you wisdom tooth. It can cause a lot of pain, and you should take care to prevent it. I did not have such good luck. Out of the four wisdom teeth that I had removed, I got one dry socket. It was not a comfortable thing to have. My oral surgeon had prescribed me some pain medication which helped. I had to take them at certain time intervals in order to manage the pain effectively.

Even though wisdom tooth extraction is usually a simple procedure, there can always be complications, no matter what your age. Dry Socket is most common complication. Patients should not smoke or drink out of a straw after getting their wisdom teeth removed. This can increase your chances of getting dry socket. It is not really known what causes dry socket, although some dentists suspect that it is sometimes due to poor circulation in the lower jaw. The condition is not normally found in the upper jaw. Other complications of the surgery are Abscess, swelling, soreness and excessive bleeding. If the pain becomes unmanagable or you have any other concerns, your oral surgeon or dentist can perform additional dental treatments or prescribe different antibiotics and painkillers.

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