Extraction and Wisdom Tooth Surgery

Category

Dental/Oral Surgery

Wisdom tooth extraction is a surgical procedure to remove one or more wisdom teeth — the four permanent adult teeth located at the back corners of your mouth on the top and bottom. If a wisdom tooth doesn't have room to grow (impacted wisdom tooth), resulting in pain, infection, or other dental problems, you'll likely need to have it pulled.

Wisdom teeth are usually only removed if they cause problems, or are likely to in the future. There are no scientifically proven health benefits of pulling wisdom teeth that don't cause any problems. What's more, removing wisdom teeth is usually unpleasant and may cause side effects.

In many people, wisdom teeth don't break through the gum and grow out – or only part of them does. Up to 80% of young adults in Europe have at least one wisdom tooth that hasn't broken through. This is more common in the lower jaw than it is in the upper jaw. The reason is usually that there isn't enough room in the jaw. Other teeth may then get in the way of the wisdom tooth, or it might come in crooked.

Wisdom teeth that don't break through (sometimes also called “impacted” wisdom teeth) often don't cause any problems. But they sometimes lead to pain, swelling, tooth decay, or inflamed gums. Impacted wisdom teeth may also push other teeth out of the way. Wisdom teeth that break through the gums may or may not cause problems too.

When is it a good idea to have your wisdom teeth pulled?

The decision about whether or not to have wisdom teeth pulled will mainly depend on whether they are already causing trouble or whether it is highly likely that they will in the future. It is important to get answers to the following questions before having any wisdom teeth removed:

Have your wisdom teeth already caused pain or damage to your jaw or nearby teeth, or is there an increased risk of that happening?

Are the wisdom teeth preventing the other teeth from developing properly?

Might the wisdom teeth interfere with other dental or jaw-related treatments that are already planned?

What risks are associated with surgery?

Could wisdom teeth "replace" molars (back teeth) that are missing or badly damaged?

People who have crooked incisors (front teeth) or small jawbones sometimes worry that their teeth may be pushed out of place even more if their wisdom teeth grow out of the gum. But that's not necessarily the case. The same is true for those people: Their wisdom teeth can be left in if the dentist doesn't expect them to affect other teeth.