Explain again why wisdom teeth must be removed?<<<<<<
Right LOL, we are transplants from a country where standard age based wisdom teeth removal is like standard circumcision, met with a big WTF. My kids have now all been presented with the wisdom teeth thing as if it is a requirement. I think not. They are barely out of braces.
I never had my wisdom teeth removed as a child/young adult. In those days, it was done in the hospital and required an overnight stay. I have very soft teeth and a mouth full of dental work. After awhile, the wisdom teeth couldn’t take another filling or crown. Plus they were difficult to keep clean. Over the past 15 years or so, I’ve had them removed one by one when they started to become a problem. I just had the last one out 3 months ago.
In some cases, because they’re impacted. In others, because they will cause orthodontic problems as they come in.
My lower wisdom teeth came in while I was at college. I remember sitting in classes, feeling the other teeth in my lower jaw shifting positions as the new wisdom teeth pushed them out of place. By the time I could deal with the problem (during Winter Break) it was too late. All the bottom teeth had shifted and were crookedly overlapping each other. The only solution would have been orthodonture, which my family couldn’t afford on top of tuition (and which would have been logistically difficult anyway because it’s very hard to go to monthly appointments when you go to college a five-hour drive from home).
I’ve had crooked bottom teeth for the rest of my life. I wish I had known to get those wisdom teeth removed before they erupted and caused so much trouble.
I did not have mine out and never had a problem.
My mom developed a cyst under one in her fifties and had to have one ore more removed. That is not that unusual Ive heard.
My oldest D’s are decaying. Sometimes they are hard to keep clean. She needs to get them out and I have asked her to make the appointment because I cannot keep track of her schedule. She has bad TMJ and I’m worried about that.
Anyone with TMJ get all four wisdom teeth removed?
@MotherOfDragons How is yor D doing? I hope the teeth are out and your D is comfortable.
@MACmiracle we’re home, she did well and is sitting up watching Dexter and eating pudding. She came out of the anesthesia grumpier than her normal self, but otherwise fine. I think the hardest part is having to sit through episodes of Dexter (for me, ew, lol).
@MotherOfDragons I guess if Dexter is as bad as it gets, that’s not too bad.
I’m glad you are both on the other side of it. Wishing her a speedy and smooth recovery!
The why take them out for us was because in D’s case they had erupted (3 of 4, she doesn’t have a 4th) and were causing her enough pain with the gums and trapped food that she decided she wanted them out. For her sister (who is a year younger), she has 4 and the two top ones are hurting her (lack of room), and the two bottom ones are coming in sideways and impacting her existing teeth (which just finished two rounds of orthodontia).
For me I had room and I kept them until I was 24, but they were constantly catching food and the gums kept getting inflamed (I have otherwise good teeth and gums) so I had them out. It was a good decision for me-my mouth was a lot happier and healthier.
Common US practice is for prophylactic removal if there is not enough space for them to come in properly.
But in some other countries, removal is only done if there is an actual problem, such as infection, untreatable decay, damage to other teeth, etc. Note that many impacted wisdom teeth do not cause problems.
The US practice is probably more costly and risky over the population, but those who end up needing removal only after problems will individually have a higher cost and risk doing it after problems than as a prophylactic procedure.
@morrismm Why take them out? Well I had a wisdom tooth become impacted midway through my first semester at college. I felt like someone was pounding on my head non-stop and it go to where I could barely function. I went home and had the tooth removed and in one day I was back to my old self. I later had the other wisdom teeth removed on a non-emergency basis. So when my kids dentist handed me an x-ray clearly showing that there was no room for their wisdom teeth to come in and that the wisdom teeth were coming in sideways and would be blocked by the molars (the cause of impacted wisdom teeth) I arranged to have them taken out before they had a problem. Leaving impacted wisdom teeth can also cause inflection, problems with adjacent teeth, and can ruin orthodontic work previously done.
However, not all people with impacted wisdom teeth will have problems with them if left in.
Unfortunately, there is no way to know at age 17-21 whether your impacted wisdom teeth will be a problem later, or you will be able to leave them for a lifetime and never have to worry about the cost and risk of removing them.
I never had my wisdom teeth removed as a child/young adult because they weren’t causing any problems. In those days, you had to have them removed in the hospital and stay overnight. My mouth is filled with dental work. It was difficult and clean and treat the wisdom teeth so they’ve come out in the past 15 years or so, whenever they couldn’t take one more filling. I just had the last one out 3 months ago
I am definitely for proactive dental care. Sadly, my attitude developed from a bad situation with my daughter when we took her for her first orthodontist appt when she was 9. He discovered a canine tooth was impacted in her palate and had dissolved (resorption?) most of the roots of THREE of her adult front teeth. I have no clue how her regular dentist missed that - but he did. She had to have surgery to attach a wire to the impacted tooth and pull it down to the correct position - which took over a year. She lost one of those three front teeth when she was 13 and got a prosthetic tooth to wear in her retainer until she was 18. About 9 months ago (she’s now 18), since her jawbones had stopped growing, she got her two front teeth extracted (they were just barely hanging on), and three implant rods inserted. She was so upset to have her front teeth pulled. She’s been wearing a very realistic prosthetic device for the past nine months while the rods bond into her jawbone and will finally be getting the final crowns for the implants in a couple of weeks. I think she will look very nice, but it came at a cost of $12,000. So my advice is to get your kid’s teeth evaluated as early as possible and do it regularly and get those wisdom teeth out if they have any potential to damage the adjacent teeth or years of costly orthodontia. We had to learn that lesson the hard way. She has been a trooper throughout the years though. She was out riding her skateboard the evening of her oral surgery when she was nine (they had to make a big incision in her palate and expose the tooth to attach the wire and then stitch it back up) and she recovered very quickly from her extractions a few months ago (but her teeth barely had any roots). Fortunately, she had a great prosthodontist who fitted her with her prosthetic teeth immediately after the oral surgeon did the extractions and implanted the rods, so she looked completely normal within a couple of hours, so she didn’t suffer much emotional trauma after it was all over.
@techmom99 thanks for the smiles! That is a funny story! My younger son’s experience a couple of weeks ago was entirely uneventful. He did not do anything silly and the recovery was without complications. I almost feel cheated, especially about the lack of silliness.
My kids weren’t silly and pretty uneventful. I’m grateful, not cheated.
My daughter is willing to try the pineapple test. I’ll let you know next Sat. if it prevented swelling.
Thank you. I would have preferred that D’s surgery have been uneventful, but since it wasn’t and since it fortunately turned out ok, I thought I’d share my story. I’m a bit grateful it happened the way it did because D saw firsthand how Valium can impact her and she and her bf and my sons now know that she isn’t to ever get it again. It could have been alot worse if I hadn’t been there to figure out why she had that reaction. I told her to add that information to her medical and dental charts.
Mostly I liked how they clapped on her return.
I guess after my first son’s experience, I was expecting just about anything. I am of course glad it went well and have no regrets.
@techmom, thanks for sharing your story. It really shows how we all react to medications SO differently. I swell up after taking some antibiotics. The docs assure me it’s not a TRUE allergy, “just” an adverse reaction, but it sure is uncomfortable, tho not as amusing as your strong dancing DD on Valium. My docs say maybe it’s sudden onset arthritis that resolves when I stop taking the antibiotics. 