Wisdom tooth extractions in Red Deer are typically recommended between the age of 12 and 25. While there is no right or wrong time to have them extracted, recovery from wisdom tooth extraction is easier for younger than older patients. When is the very best time to have your wisdom teeth pulled? Before they cause any complications requiring more complicated dental procedures to resolve.
Not everyone has wisdom teeth
A quick and simple dental X-ray will confirm whether you have a third row of molars in your jaw. As many as a third of people simply do not have wisdom teeth which, since they’re unnecessary, is not a big deal. In fact, it may save you from a set of unnecessary complications. Keep in mind though, that you should not determine for yourself if you have wisdom teeth. Just because you can’t feel them, or because they may not have emerged yet, does not mean that they aren’t lying in wait beneath your gums. Whenever you have questions about your wisdom teeth, talk to your dentist. Don’t rely on your own guesses.
If you do have wisdom teeth, it is common for a dentist in Red Deer to recommend that those wisdom teeth be preemptively extracted to prevent future complications.
What could happen if you delay extraction for too long?
Your jaw may become overcrowded
Over many generations, the average jaw size of a human being has shrunken. As a practical matter, there simply is not enough room in our jaw to accommodate a third set of molars. To make room for themselves, emerging wisdom teeth often place pressure on other teeth in our jaw, causing them to get pushed out of position and causing unnatural changes to your bite.
If you wait until after that has happened to remove your wisdom teeth, you’ll have more to deal with than just wisdom teeth extraction. You may also require braces, surgery, or other extractions to repair the damage caused by an overcrowded jaw.
Your other teeth may get damaged
Wisdom teeth that push their way into your jaw can cause more issues than just alignment. Because of the tight spaces involved, wisdom teeth often emerge into difficult-to-reach places tightly against your other molars. They’re often difficult to keep clean, resulting in the accumulation of plaque and tartar-producing tooth decay that affects your other molars which — in turn — are harder to reach with new wisdom teeth crowding their space.
Preventing the emergence and spread of tooth decay, as well as preventing the harmful pressure that wisdom teeth can exert against the roots of other teeth, is another reason to consider preventative wisdom tooth extraction.
You increase your risk of developing oral diseases
Wisdom teeth increase the risk not just of tooth decay, but of gum inflammation, gum disease, and infections that can spread to the nerves below your gums as well. Wisdom tooth extractions in Red Deer are recommended to improve your oral health generally.
Pain could get worse
All of the potential complications of wisdom teeth mentioned here come with one common side effect — pain. Considering that wisdom teeth no longer play an important role in our jaw, and the seriousness of the side effects that they can cause, the ability to eliminate pain, tooth sensitivity, and gum sensitivity that can come along with emerging wisdom teeth is another factor that strongly favours extraction.
Should you have your wisdom teeth extracted? That’s a question that is best discussed with a dentist in Red Deer who is familiar with your medical history and who reviewed a complete set of dental images to see how your wisdom teeth — if any — are developing.