It is possible to have an impacted tooth,
feel no pain, and never know until you visit your dentist Spokane. Teeth most
likely to become impacted are the third molars, or wisdom teeth. Expect your
wisdom teeth to start showing around the ages of 17 to your early 20s. If
placed badly or if your jaw is too short for extra adult teeth, the third molar
starts pushing on the second molar, causing pain and damage to the second
molar. The third molar can also erupt sideways, towards the jaw, an awkward
position that could bruise or tear your gums.
All growing third molars cause pain and
discomfort, but people feel it in different degrees. At worse, some experience
fever and a throbbing ache on the side of their face. While other report only a
mild discomfort. The danger with impacted molars is they can be prone to
infection and damage surrounding teeth.
Visit a Dentist
Easiest way to determine if your third
molars are coming out nicely is to consult a dentist. Your dentist can do an
examination or take a dental X-ray to confirm that your molar is impacted even
before it is fully visible on the surface of the gum. Go to your dentist as
soon as you start feeling discomfort in your back teeth. It does not have to be
severe pain. You can do this as soon as you are in your late teens. Not
everybody has wisdom teeth. Most people will have 4, but there are also cases
where as much as 8 wisdom teeth erupt. An X-ray will reveal how many wisdom
teeth to expect.
Infection Caused By Impacted Tooth
Infection and pain is the most common
reason patients visit a dentist for treatment. Impacted molars tend to cause
complications when they get infected. They cause swelling at the very back of
your teeth where the third molar is supposed to erupt. At this point, your
dentist will prescribe you antibiotics and possible soft tissue surgery to
clean the infection.
Extracting Impacted Molar
Taking out the molar is the last resort,
when pain and infections persist. It can be very difficult to remove an
impacted tooth, depending on its position. The root of the third molar is close
to an important nerve, and when damaged, can mean you will no longer be able to
eat normally. To reduce the risk of damaging nerves, your dentist might only
partially remove an impacted tooth, leaving the root untouched. This will
ensure it does not push on the second molar, jaw or gum, depending on how it
was positioned. The problem with leaving the root or some other tooth fragments
is that you might become prone to infections, but this is preferable to risking
permanent damage to nerves.
Whatever you and your dentist decide to do
with your third molars, make sure that extraction is done before you turn 25
years old. The risks for bone loss after extracting molars increases after the
age of 25. If your third molars are in perfect health, consider keeping and
maintaining them with proper cleaning instead of early extraction.
