<p>I think that the US dentists’ recommendation to have all wisdom teeth removed no matter what might be guided by reasons other than medical. Here’s an excerpt from a recent medical article: “Universal extraction of wisdom teeth would cost more than $278 million and would result in three million days of misery for Americas teenagers … . Removing only problem teeth would cost an estimated $51.5 million and create 776,000 days of misery … . If surgeons removed only those wisdom teeth that actually caused problems … the nation would save at least $150 million a year in medical expenses with no ill effects. And tens of thousands of people, mostly teenagers, would be spared the aches, pains and complications that can result from the surgery.”<br>
Recent studies suggest that routine prophylactic removal of wisdom teeth may be ill advised. Read more about this topic here: <a href=“http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v12/i3/wisdomteeth.asp[/url]”>http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v12/i3/wisdomteeth.asp</a></p>
<p>I agree that wisdom teeth should be taken out in high school, if possible. I had a toothache during the spring of my freshman year so visited a dentist. The diagnosis was that my wisdom teeth had to come out. I had two taken out a few days later. Unfortunately, a day or two later I developed an infection in the incision when I tried to eat mushy macaroni and cheese. Because of the infection, I was still on mushy food two weeks later when the other two were extracted. Argh! </p>
<p>My son, on the other hand, had his taken out last year when he was still in high school. He sailed through without taking a single pain pill. Of course, I knew better than to give him macaroni and cheese!</p>
<p>From the British Medical Journal:
“The routine practice of prophylactic removal of disease free, impacted third molars should be discontinued, according to new guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence… Asymptomatic wisdom teeth should not be operated on and surgical removal should be limited to those patients with evidence of disease, such as unrestorable caries, osteomyelitis, trauma, and tumours… The guidelines state that only a second or particularly severe episode of pericoronitis (inflammation of the gingiva surrounding the crown of a tooth) should indicate removal.”
<a href=“http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/7239/890/a?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=wisdom+teeth&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1136233764045_10384&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1[/url]”>http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/7239/890/a?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=wisdom+teeth&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1136233764045_10384&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1</a></p>
<p>I am over 40 and just had my wisdom teeth out this past summer. Sailed through the whole thing except for the first few hours after I came home. Anesthesia made me dizzy so I was nauseous every time I tried to stand up. So I just stayed put and let everyone else wait on me! That was a nice change!</p>
<p>All 4 of my wisdom teeth erupted in my 20s and were “fine.” What took almost 10 years to figure out was that the long roots of the teeth can irritate the facial nerves and cause migraine-like headaches in some people. Lot’s of pain & misery & missed work time plus hundreds of dollars in medical & dental bills trying to find an invisible problem was not a fun experience. I wish they had been removed as a teenager and I will have my kid’s wisdome teeth removed…I do still have my tonsils, though!</p>
<p>Just as a warning…</p>
<p>When I was in high school, I worked at a retirement home. One day a resident came in with a severly bruised and swollen jaw. He looked like hell…I asked him what had happened and how he was feeling. He told me that he finally needed his wisdom teeth out (the roots had wrapped around his jaw) and was in lots of pain. I personally wouldn’t want to find out at 70ish that my wisdom teeth needed to come out because they had wrapped around my jaw! I got mine out at 17, literally months after I found out I had them (was told for years that I got lucky and didn’t have any)…I’m so glad I learned from this unfortunate man at the retirement home!</p>
<p>Just goes to show you that you never know when they are going to go wild on you…so if you do decide to keep them in, have your dentist watch them like a hawk!</p>
<p>Both my boys had their wisdom teeth removed and it was very non eventful. Virtually no swelling. Hardly any pain. When I had my own removed 30 years ago I had to take lots of pain meds, couldn’t eat for days, had golf ball sized swellings. I simply could not believe how easy it was for my boys! You never know. For my kids, it seems like they pretty much have to come out. There is no room for them. And it does seem like it is less complicated and easier to remove them before they cause problems. </p>
<p>Its very interesting to find out that the teeth can cause such problems later in life, at 70 years of age! I had no idea.</p>
<p>Both my kids had theirs out at a fairly young age (15, 16), when the teeth were still “buds”. Dentist said that it is good to get them out before they develop the roots that can get entangled with the nerves, etc. (And neither kid had room for wisdom teeth in jaw, and wisdom teeth would have crowded and shifted other teeth.) Both of them had an easy time with the procedure, and we used the icepacks LOTS.</p>
<p>I’m 22 and I got all four of my wisdom teeth out on December 21 with local anesthesia. The bottom teeth were very hard to get out because the roots were curved. I went out of town for Christmas and I ended up getting dry sockets at both bottom extraction sites, but much worse on the left. However, the pain wasn’t as severe as some people experience. I just had aches in my gums and teeth throughout the day. Dry socket pain is deep pain and the brain doesn’t know how to process signals from unusual areas, so you feel pain in areas other than the dry socket. If I didn’t think about it I didn’t feel the pain, but I did take vicodin at night to sleep.</p>
<p>When I got back to town I had both sockets packed and it hurt like hell when the doctor put his packing instrument down into my gums. I’ve since had four packings but I felt MUCH better after the first one.</p>
<p>Other than the socket problem, I didn’t have much trouble. I didn’t even swell up and I thought that was good considering how hard it was to remove my teeth. I was eating regular foods like noodles and rice the same day of the procedure. I don’t know if that contributed to the sockets not closing up or not.</p>
<p>The weird thing that happened to me is that one night I got the hiccups for 90 minutes straight and then had frequent episodes over the following 2-3 days. I wonder if that was a side-effect of any of the medication. I am just glad that I didn’t get headaches because I a get migraines and I am prone to TMJ disorder, although my impacted wisdom teeth may have been causing the pain that I thought was TMJ.</p>
<p>The most likely reason for my dry sockets was the trauma from removing the bottom teeth. The top ones came out easily but the bottom teeth required a lot of work and that probably caused damage to the socket.</p>
<p>Why don’t doctors recommend removing appendix in everyone because it may cause problems in some people at some point in their lives? And are wisdom teeth the only teeth in your mouth that may cause toothache when you get older? Millions of people in other countries where there’s no such mandate to remove wisdom teeth are doing just fine. Here’s one more research abstract on this topic: <a href=“Wisdom Tooth Problems: Do I Need My Wisdom Teeth Removed?”>Wisdom Tooth Problems: Do I Need My Wisdom Teeth Removed?;
<p>Wow… I had no idea that wisdom teeth extraction had become a “rite of passage” for high school seniors.</p>
<p>My daughter just had them out…expected to miss 2 days of school – missed 5 — passed out on day one. No vomiting but horrible pain.</p>
<p>Now she’s returned to school and working so hard to catch up with school work.</p>
<p>Good news is…she’s better and I suppose even better news…this didn’t happen during freshman year of college…with the tuition prices out there…Yikes…can’t imagine missing so much college.</p>
<p>I had my wisdom teeth out in my mid 20’s – (mid 1980s)…it was truly no big deal…every case is different.</p>
<p>I was one of those lucky kids who got to having a violent vomiting reaction. I had been put onto Vicodin, however I actually think it was a combination of that and the stuff they used to put me to sleep. However I recall that being one of the more pain experiences in my life. A good idea of something to eat, I lived on Vanilla shakes. My parents would get me ones made of real ice cream, so it least seemed like I was getting some food in me. Also good are big french fries (steak fries), without salt on them. You can cut them up (no I’m not kidding) and it can be something of some substance you can eat.</p>
<p>When i got my wisdom teeth removed and after my first dose of pain meds wore off i felt an intense pain for a day. Although the vomitting didnt happen with me, it wasnt fun, good luck.</p>
<p>maybe i’m just a freak of nature who was born in a less evolved state - but my wisdom teeth fit perfectly. Not only do i not need them out, but my dentist was impressed that not only are they not impacted, but they arn’t even crooked -</p>
<p>Sucks for ya’ll who have to have them taken out. :-(</p>
<p>I had 2 wisdom teeth taken out in November at the age of 43 (waited as long as I could). I feel your pain.</p>
<p>I did lose 7 lb’s in the first 4 days since I didn’t eat much of anything - unfortunately I gained it all back.</p>
<p>jags, maybe you are the cross of the big jaw tribe and the small teeth tribe?</p>
<p>I also have all of mine, grown in, no problems.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m like jags. </p>
<p>Of course, my mouth doesn’t open very wide so getting them scaled when I go to the dentist isn’t too much fun, and getting sealants in them was even less fun (still way better than having them out though).</p>
<p>Son had these MONSTER teeth. When he had his panoramic x-ray 18 months ago they told him they were okay and didn’t have to come out. They thought they were fully formed and not impacting or likely to. So he has been having these awful headaches and pain in his jaw, even poking into the gum with his pen (!) to alleviate some of the pain, so we set up an appointment for this break.</p>
<p>Anywho, he had the second panorex taken and the teeth had definitely GROWN and had thus turned to a 45 degree angle and were now impacted. </p>
<p>Couldn’t see it on the x-ray very well, but when they took these out–HO CHEE MAMA! WE have them in a little envelope. Sick. No wonder he hurts! Dad has big, beautiful, solid teeth, I have narrow jaw. Poor kid! BTW he’ll be 20 in a couple of months and already had two top bicuspids pulled for orthodontics.</p>
<p>D had her top two wisdom teeth out this morning- they were tiny
Extracted all in one piece. took about an hour.
Very careful about getting food in her- lots of yogurt drinks- had her start on those before I gave her the big gun pain medicine, but about 5 hours after she took it, she went to the bathroom to throw up and practically fainted on the way back to the couch.
Upside is, instead of going back to school on wednesday like she planned I am talking her into staying till next weekend so I can drive her back to school- of course that is over a week away so she may have a miraculous recovery before then</p>