Talk to me about wisdom teeth!

<p>cartera45, I disagree that it is unfounded that the teeth can move. I do agree that it takes a long time. There is not a SPECK of room for my front tooth to move back into place and there is no room for my wisdoms to move back either…All my teeth pushed each other forward and now the one little guy is in front of the others. The gap where he used to be is half the width it should be, so he jumped out and sits in front of the others. I am considering getting a retainer for my top teeth because one front tooth closes onto that pesky bottom tooth and has moved forward slightly, I don’t want it to move any more. I think on some night I probably clench or something and that bad tooth pushes on the top tooth (they touch when I close tightly, they wouldn’t if it didn’t stick out)</p>

<p>I don’t know any dentists, orthodontists or surgeons who believe that the wisdom teeth can make the front teeth crooked and you won’t find any evidence for it elsewhere. If you Google it, you’ll find answers from non-professionals saying it happens but you won’t find dentists who agree. The wisdom teeth can put pressure on the adjacent but that’s about as far as it goes. It’s the law of diminishing returns at work too. Dental schools have done several studies to disprove it. They only cause crowding at the back. </p>

<p>It was the changing of your jaw that made your teeth crooked. It happens at about the same time as the wisdom teeth erupt so people think it is the wisdom teeth, but there is no way they can put exert that much pressure to cause the domino effect that would result in crooked front teeth. A change in your bite over years can also cause the front teeth to get crooked. </p>

<p>For years, I thought that my wisdom teeth made perfectly straight teeth became crooked when I was 19. I mentioned it to my D’s orthodontist and he just smiled and explained. Her dentist and surgeon gave the same explanation.</p>

<p>njfootballmom,</p>

<p>It is my observation (not a professional), that most people’s lower teeth crowd in front as they age, whether their wisdom teeth are intact or not.</p>

<p>Mine crowded just as yours did. I still have my lower wisdom teeth, too. I paid for Invisilign ($3300) to correct them (and the top), and now they are perfectly straight, even though like you, I was convinced there was no room to straighten them. If your insurance doesn’t cover removal, it might be worth weighing the cost of straightening them vs. the cost of removing them.</p>

<p>Still have all 4 wisdom teeth with no issues in my mid 50’s - appendix too. No tonsils though - those were yanked at age 5 as was customary back then.</p>

<p>DD’s were impacted and removed. Drank pineapple juice for a few days before surgery to prevent swelling. It worked.</p>

<p>DS was told there was no need to remove his wisdom teeth. He must take after Mom. </p>

<p>Just remembered - my mom, age 85 has all her teeth and is very proud of it.</p>

<p>Drank pineapple juice for a few days before surgery to prevent swelling. It worked.</p>

<p>Ive never heard of that.</p>

<p>Is it normal for a dentist to wait until the wisdom teeth have partially come up? I’ve been having pain but my dentist does not want the surgeon to pull them when they are still fully in my gum. He said if it still hurts in a few months, or at my next 6 month he would consider referring me. I am planning on taking a summer course so if I do wait until my 6 month to bring it up again the procedure wouldn’t be done until after Christmas. Is it more painful if they have pull them from under the gum? He said eventually they would need to be taken out since three of them would run into molars if they fully come up.</p>

<p>fumafoo, the orthodontic surgeon who pulled my D’s wisdom teeth told us that it’s easier to remove them if they are partially up, because otherwise they can roll around in the socket “like marbles” during the procedure and be more difficult and uncomfortable to remove. My D was actually teething like an infant (with a little blood on the pillow) when the procedure finally took place.</p>

I know this is a little late in the game to post (3 years later), but I just wanted to let anyone who’s reading this know, that I most definitely regret my wisdom teeth taken out. I could go on and on about the research I’ve done and how unnecessary they are…also, many people think that removal causes facial changes, myself included. Consequently I am now looking into getting dental implants to be placed in the extraction sites…here’s a brief list of reasons I’ve found to NEVER have them removed…

  1. They are perfectly good replacement teeth should one of your teeth fall out/need to be removed. Dentists will sometimes tell you otherwise, but they most always drift in to replace the tooth you lost. (ie even if you lost say, a 1st molar, the teeth behind that tooth will drift forward, and the wisdom tooth will come in behind them. Why remove 4 perfectly good teeth to later pay upwards of $4,000 to get one implant?..

  2. The teeth commonly wear down as we age, and the jaw also shrinks. Common sense would dictate that without wisdom teeth, this process would be accelerated. The presence of these teeth take away some of the stress from the other teeth, so wear is lessened. Also, if the wisdom teeth are impacted, they will commonly erupt when other teeth are worn down and there is room for them to come in.

  3. Some will say wisdom teeth hurt when they come in. Learned this from my research as well, but common sense do just as well: all teeth hurt when they come in, it’s just teething.

  4. Only 12.5% of asymptomatic impacted wisdoms will cause issues if kept…that’s the same percentage as retained appendixes…and doctors have stopped taking those out unnecessarily for years now.

  5. No one extracts wisdom teeth like we do in the U.S. In fact, in Great Britain, on their public health system (NHS), they only dictate removal if the tooth is diseased or otherwise causing a danger to the patient. Oral surgeons make a couple hundred thousand dollars of their salary on wisdom teeth extractions alone…in fact, I think it may be the bulk of their business. Therefore, they have an enormous financial incentive to extract the teeth, and I’m not saying they’re all intentionally scamming you either…but many times even unconscious forces are at work, and they’ll see what they wanna see/hear what they wanna hear (ie not look at the new studies proving the potential harm/trivialness of extraction.

  6. Facial changes. I know my face has changed, many other people I’ve read about have noticed the same thing. And it may not be immediately visible, as the bone atrophy can take years to be apparent, but it happens. I have now talked to 2 dentists who confirms this occurs, and one customer service employee at the ADA who said it’s possible. The two dentists I talked to were, unsurprisingly, from overseas. One, a dentist and craniofacial expert in London, said the profile changes and there can be slight facial collapse. The other, in Korea, said bone remodeling occurs, the mandibular (jaw) angle changes, and many Korean women get them extracted for a thinner face.This is the one consequence I am most appalled/livid at…the fact that this is not a part of informed consent is unethical and barbaric…admittedly many dentists seem to just be ignorant of this fact, but I feel if they were truly looking out for their patient’s best interest (and knowing what other tooth extraction does to the face), they would err on the side of precaution…and preventive measures, meaning doing whatever you can to save the tooth. And even if they didn’t know about facial changes, it’s common sense that someone may lose a tooth as they age, why wouldn’t anyone in their right mind, want to keep their perfectly healthy back up teeth for this purpose? As opposed to getting implants which are in the range of $3-6,000 or worse, dentures or bridges, which cause you to experience facial collapse, bone loss, and loss of your other teeth?

  7. Also, TMJ, TMD, and other jaw disorders as well as sinus problems are implicated with 3rd molar removal.

Finally, I’d leave you with this last thought…when humans go against nature, we usually end up messing things up…usually, we eventually catch on and change the error of our ways, but it’s too late for all victims of the medical/environmental experiment…I think many people forget that doctors/experts, are just humans…and of course they have a dearth of knowledge in their field…but that doesn’t mean they know everything, and often a holistic perspective is taken out of the equation (i.e. how could this affect the rest of the body). Examples of this are numerous: removing the tonsils (no longer done), removing the appendix (no longer done), extracting teeth for braces (mostly no longer done as it disfigures the face), and I could go on and on…if we didn’t need wisdom teeth, evolution would have phased them out…of course you can live without them…but there is no doubt in my mind that they benefit us in ways that we may not be able to perceive (or, as in my case, can’t perceive until they’re gone). Don’t be a lab rat. Be your own self advocate. Don’t blindly accept a statement/direction from any authority or any source…unless it agrees with your own soul.