Do wisdom teeth really need to come out, or is my dentist trying to hustle me?
Well one reason we’ve done so well with wisdom teeth throughout history is that absent modern dental care, by the time they normally come in, i.e. in one’s teens or twenties, most people have lost a few teeth, leaving sufficient room for those to come on. Wisdom teeth are actually a problem for a lot of people. Whether or not they’re causing you pain right now doesn’t actually tell you anything important, as cavities in those teeth can lead to serious infections. Once the cavities have worn through the enamel, the bacteria that normally live in your mouth can get into the insides of your teeth and cause serious problems. We’re talking tissue death and major infections. If you want a second opinion, by all means, get one. If you don’t like the dentist you went to, by all means, go to another one. But do get this looked into, because the fact that your dentist may be trying to hustle you doesn’t necessarily mean that he isn’t right.
Thank you all for taking the time to post, I really appreciate it :)! You’ve convinced me that I need to take this dental work more seriously, so that I will do. I’m going to go get the x-ray prescribed, and then talk to the dentist about the options available. While I do still think he was being alarmist and pushy, I can see now why he would do so – he’s used to dealing with people who get their teeth checked regularly, and here’s me who hasn’t seen a dentist in 18 years, he was very likely trying to scare me into action for my own sake. I do have cavities in at least 2 wisdom teeth so I’ll have to see if I can have them filled and clean them better, or if they really need to come out. If they do I guess I’ll just have to deal with it, better safe than sorry after reading some of your comments 0_0 I do tend to clean my teeth extremely well – twice a day with an electric toothbrush for at least 2 minutes – but obviously it’s not cutting it for those back teeth.
When I was 18 my dentist recommended that I have mine removed because one was starting to poke through and my middle front teeth were starting to get pushed together. I hesitated for a year or two then had it (just one) removed in an emergency procedure when it got very painful and infected over a weekend. What made it worse is that the roots weren’t straight and pointed in opposite directions so it had to be broken and removed in pieces. While I awake – under just local anesthetic . It was incredibly painful and my entire face was bruised for weeks and twice I found small shards of broken tooth sticking out of my gums over a month afterwards that had been rejected by my body. Gross (but kind of cool). On followup, dentist recommended have the remaining 3 removed to prevent the same thing from happening – and again, I hesitated. Repeat same expensive emergency experience as before. Again, on followup the dentist says to get the last ones removed and I agreed and everything went perfect
all four of my wisdom teeth came in impacted. i begged my dentist to just take all of them out already and be done with it, but he was both very old and very old school and said he didn’t believe in taking out teeth unless he absolutely had to and anyway i’d had some teeth removed for my braces and so i had a lot of space for them to spread out. fast forward ten years: they’ve crowded my teeth together, i’ve had to have cavities filled and super painful and expensive root canals done, and the two lower ones have been pulled out—i’ll eventually have to get the upper ones pulled two because they’re unopposed and will grow and push dirt into the gaps. i really wish he’d listened and just pulled them when i was younger and had asked him to as it would’ve saved me a LOT of pain and expense!
Get them out! I actually wish my dentist had pushed me harder to get them out. My orthodontist, while checking out x-rays, mentioned that my wisdom teeth would probably have to come out. After the whole braces deal my dentist came to the same conclusion but I kept brushing them off. Went to college and stopped seeing the dentist. During my second year I woke up in the middle of the night to one of the worst pains in my mouth ever. I downed pain killers and cried in pain, unable to sleep for 3 days and then the pain just disappeared. It happened again 3 more times over the next 2 years and the pain lasted around 3-5 days but I never got it checked out. One morning the pain came back, I suffered through it for 2 sleepless nights and on the 3rd night the lower right side of my face completely swelled up. I finally decided to get it checked. It turned out to be a horrible infection. My wisdom teeth had all been on the move crushing my back molars in the process. I was immediately prescribe
