Colleen Tracy Dentistry
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Dental Conditions
Alternatives to Extracting Wisdom Teeth
The alternative to having wisdom teeth removed is to keep them.
A few lucky people are able to keep their wisdom teeth and care for them as they would their other teeth. But for most of us, this isn't possible, and a delay in their removal can cause serious problems.
An impacted wisdom tooth may push on other teeth. It can be very painful when a wisdom tooth that has started to erupt becomes infected. This is a common dental emergency that can cause pain for days, even after antibiotics are started.
A misaligned tooth can also cause cavities.
This x-ray shows a wisdom tooth coming in sideways and causing a cavity in the second molar. And wisdom teeth are nearly impossible to keep free of plaque.
Plaque caused the cavity in this wisdom tooth. Plaque also causes periodontal disease, which may start near the wisdom teeth and spread throughout the mouth. Sometimes cysts form around impacted wisdom teeth. Cysts can destroy a tremendous amount of bone before they're even noticed and may require surgery to remove.
As time passes, the roots of wisdom teeth may grow around a nerve in the jaw. When this happens, the nerves entwined in the roots of the wisdom teeth can be damaged during extraction. This could leave your lip and chin permanently numb.
Because of these many serious problems, it's usually better to remove wisdom teeth early, even before they break through the gums.