How do I know if my wisdom tooth needs to be extracted?

Doctor's Answers 2

This is a very valid question and also an age old one!

Though it may sound like a cop out, I am going to say all the dentists you have consulted prior to this have not been wrong. Be it whether it was advice to remove or to leave it status quo.

Without the benefit of radiographs and a clinical examination of your teeth, I am however hesitant to weigh in with my own opinion.

The need to remove wisdom teeth can at times be discretional and not so clear cut. At times it is a definite must while at other times, surgical risk of removal may outweigh the benefits.

At the end of the day, our role as dentists is to provide you with the appropriate advice and treatment options and for you as the captain of your own ship to make the final decision.

As a patient, you should never feel forced or pressured into a procedure, especially one such as this.

I hope that my colleagues you have seen in the past have been able to give you enough advice to make an informed decision. If not, I strongly encourage seeking a second opinion before you take the leap!

In terms of giving you any personable advice, I completely agree with Dr Shiming. It’s really hard for us to comment until we’ve done an examination for yourself.

However, I thought I’d share with you some common reasons why wisdom teeth are extracted. If any apply to you or anyone else reading, then maybe you should consider to remove them.

  1. Pericoronitis. If the wisdom can’t erupt fully, there may be a flap of loose gum which lies over or around the erupted portion of the wisdom tooth. Food and bacteria can get stuck under this flap and cause a localised gum infection. NICE guidelines advise 2 counts or more of pericoronitis is an indication for removal of the wisdom tooth.
  2. Dental decay. That flap of gum I was talking about, when food gets stuck repeatedly under the gum, then the wisdom tooth is at risk of decay. Even if the tooth has fully come out of the gum, it might be at at funny angle, again causing food packing. Even if it’s fully straight, it’s furthest back in the mouth and some patients struggle to clean this area properly.
  3. Damage to other teeth. If food repeatedly gets stuck around the wisdom tooth, the tooth next to it has a higher risk of developing decay. Also, if the wisdom tooth has no opposing tooth, it can erupt into the space, possibly causing trauma to the opposing soft tissue.
  4. Dentigerous cyst. The most common location of a dentigerious cyst are the lower third molars (wisdom teeth). Early detection and removal of dentigerous cysts is important to reduce further morbidity.

Hope this has at least provided some useful information 🙂

Similar Questions

Can an erupting wisdom tooth cause other teeth to shift and become shaky?

Thank you for your enquiry. We see this very commonly in many adults, who notice their lower teeth becoming more crooked or shifting especially in their early 20s. This is termed as late lower incisor crowding. The cause of this is unfortunately not as straight forward, and years of studies show that it could be due to many reasons. Here are some of the possible causes: 1) Erupting wisdom teeth pushing the lower teeth forward - however, there have been studies where patients with no wisdom teeth have also experienced this late crowding of the lower teeth.

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What consequences are there if I do not extract a wisdom tooth that is causing gum discomfort? (photo)

When it comes to wisdom teeth where there are episodes of discomfort and pain, I am in favour of extracting them and here's why: 1. Recurrent gum infection Based on your Xray, the lower wisdom teeth are quite upright. However due to the lack of space, they are still covered by the gum. What this means is that there will keep being off and on pain because when you bite and chew, the upper back molar would keep biting on the gum and after a while, cause gum inflammation also known as pericoronitis - ouch.

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