Why Do We Remove Wisdom Teeth?

Last week we saw a patient who had been experiencing soreness in some of her back teeth. About a year ago we saw her and recommended she have her wisdom teeth removed. She told us she didn’t see why they should be removed if they weren’t bothering her. We explained all of the possible problems involved with most wisdom teeth (see previous post “Wisdom Teeth“) and showed on the x-rays the way that hers were growing in at an angle that could possibly damage the other teeth.

Needless to say, nothing was done about these wisdom teeth. A year later she has returned in pain. When we took the x-rays we found that her wisdom teeth had continued to grow forward and had caused terrible damage to the teeth just in front of them. The damage was so bad that we couldn’t save the wisdom teeth or the ones they had grown into. So instead of removing a few wisdom teeth very easily, we had to do a very lengthy surgery in order to take out 6 teeth!

The moral of the story is…get your wisdom teeth checked if they have never been removed. If your dentist recommends removal to avoid other damage, please do it! You don’t want to be in a situation where other teeth are affected. The process is so easy. You basically go to sleep and when you wake up, everything has been done.

We offer completely free consultations and x-rays if you are concerned about your wisdom teeth. Please just give us a call or shoot me an e-mail if you have questions!

Dr. Heap

480-892-1711