What You Should Know About Extracting Your Wisdom Teeth

“Wisdom” teeth are usually the last teeth to erupt into the mouth. On average, they arrive between 17 and 25 years of age. Unfortunately, more often than not, wisdom teeth do not erupt normally in the mouth. They may only erupt halfway or quarter-way or even fail to erupt up at all and get stuck inside the jaw. This is when we say that your wisdom teeth are impacted. The only solution to impacted wisdom teeth is extracting them. Here is what you should know about this procedure.

1.    Not all wisdom teeth must be removed. Your dentist will decide to remove a wisdom tooth if it is impacted and risks damaging the neighboring teeth, if it has developed a cavity and it can’t be repaired any other way, or if it can’t be cleaned well and is causing (or will cause) gum disease.

2.    The procedure might be long. This is usually because your dentist has to first expose enough of the tooth in order to take it out. It may take between 30 minutes to as much as 2 hours in very difficult cases.

3.    It is not painful. The first question most people ask about wisdom tooth extraction is, “won’t I feel pain”? the answer is simple. You shouldn’t be able to feel pain as the tooth is taken out. What you will definitely feel is a sensation of pressure as the dentist widens the bony socket to extract the tooth.

4.    It might take a while to heal: You shouldn’t expect to get back to normal in a few hours. Because the procedure might be very invasive, your body will take some time adopting and healing itself. This means that you might feel some discomfort in the area for a few days to weeks (in very difficult extractions), until the body heals fully. It is important to be patient with yourself in order to avoid anxiety.

5.    Older people may take longer to fully recover from the procedure compared to younger people, because the aging body is no longer in its best shape to heal fast. Still though, they will heal.

6.    Swelling after the procedure is expected and should not alarm you. Your dentist will give you some medication to help with that, and will advise to place an ice pack on the outside of your face to help reduce it. The swelling usually lasts 2 to 3 days. Should it continue to get worse after 3 days, do talk to your dentist about it. 

Do you have a question about wisdom teeth, ask in the comments section below!