Understanding your wisdom teeth

If you’re experiencing pain or discomfort from your wisdom teeth, it’s essential you see a dentist.

Your wisdom teeth are the third and final set of molars that usually come through at around the age of 18 or a little later. They can cause problems for many of us, and often need to be removed.

Most of us have four wisdom teeth: two on the upper jaw and two in the lower jaw. Some of us don’t develop all of the wisdom teeth, whilst others may be missing one or two.

Impacted wisdom teeth

Wisdom teeth can often lead to problems due to being impacted. This means that your jaws have insufficient room for your wisdom teeth to grow or move into a position that allows them to be functional teeth. When this occurs, a number of painful problems can start to present, such as:

• gum disease around the molar teeth
• infections and swelling around the gums of wisdom teeth
• formation of decay around adjacent functioning teeth
• formation of cysts
• crowding other teeth, causing pain and misalignment of the teeth

Safe, Painless Wisdom Teeth Removal

If you are experiencing wisdom tooth pain or any of the above problems, it’s  likely that your dentist will recommend wisdom teeth extraction. This can be performed safely and painlessly in either the dentist chair using various sedation methods, or in a hospital under a general anaesthetic, depending on your condition and preference.

Generally speaking, it’s recommended that if wisdom teeth look potentially problematic, it’s best to have them removed sooner rather than later. This is because when you are younger, the roots are not as fully formed and the bone surrounding the area is softer. This in turn makes removal of the wisdom teeth easier and recovery time quicker.

Weekend Wisdom Teeth Removal Clinic

Dentistry Plus has made in-chair wisdom teeth removal far more affordable with our weekend wisdom teeth removal clinic open Fridays and Saturdays. Find out more about our wisdom teeth clinic here.

Full Mouth X-Ray

Our dentist will thoroughly assess your teeth to ascertain the best plan of action, which involves him or her taking and OPG (full mouth x-ray) to make the most informed decision.