Your teeth and mouth will change as you age. At the ages 17 and 21 your third molars will appear on each side of the upper and lower jaws. These teeth are called wisdom teeth. If they come out correctly and have a tooth to crush on, they can help you chew. But in most cases this does not happen, and if you lose a tooth on which the wisdom tooth rubbed, it will keep on growing. Also if there isn’t enough space for your wisdom teeth, they might become impacted which means that they are trapped under your gums or in your jaw. Either way, they might force your other teeth to move, or bacteria might be lodged between the teeth as it is difficult to clean them. You might feel the pain, or have a bad breathe as symptoms of a problematic wisdom tooth.
We do not need wisdom teeth anymore, as human’s diet of eating less vitamin K2 which helps with building your bones, including your jaw. The result is our jaws are smaller than our forefathers that don’t have space for all 32 teeth to come in straight.
If needed your dentist might suggest that you should have your wisdom teeth removed. The removal of wisdom teeth might also be suggested while you have dental braces as a preventative measure.
The American Dental Association recommends that those from 16 to 19 years old should have their wisdom teeth removed as teeth removed before age 20 have less developed roots and fewer complications.
Before making any decisions, your dentist will examine your mouth and take an x-ray. Together, you and your dentist can discuss the best course of treatment.
Removal can occur at the dentist rooms or in hospital, but this will depend on your pain sensitivity and the placement of the wisdom teeth. You will receive local anesthesia or general anesthesia, depending where the procedure takes place. After your procedure you will experience pain and swelling. There will also be a lot of bleeding. This might happen for a day or two, as the gums start to heal. That is when a tooth is pulled a blood clot starts to form in the tooth socket. This is a natural process of the body healing.
On average the recovering time after wisdom teeth removal is about a week. But the recovery will depend on the type of anesthesia that was used. If it was a local anesthesia, your recovery will be faster as it remains in the body not as long as other forms of anesthesia. Eating a healthy diet after surgery will speed the recover up as well. Also you should follow the instructions of your dentist, which will inform you to avoid straws, or brushing your teeth too soon, as these actions can cause a dry socket.
To make your recovery easier, you should prepare before you go for your wisdom teeth removal. Add some extra pillows so that you will be laying in a more raised position. In fact you should ensure that your face is higher than your heart for the first 3 days post the procedure. Also place some old towels over your pillows are you will bleed during the night and this will protect your pillows. You can look up wisdom teeth recipes on the internet and make some prepared meals that are packed with healing power so when you are feeling groggy you still have sometime healthy to eat. This will speed your recovery up.
If for any reason, within the first 5 days post an extraction, the blood clot breaks off, a dry socket can occur. This happens to 2 to 5 % of cases, but it can be extremely painful. You will need to revise the dentist which will remove any debris and apply a medicated dressing to protect the area and minimize the pain. You will be placed on an antibiotic to avoid an infection and your dentist will suggest a painkiller for the pain. But this will last for a week to 10 days. If anesthesia is used, there will be a risk. If it is not properly administered it can lead to death. But luckily this is rare.
Still you can have some nerve damage. This can be only temporary, but in some cases it is permanent. The side effect of nerve damage is numbness. Nerve injury can also interfere with your daily activities, making things such as eating and drinking challenging and sore.
