What are impacted wisdom teeth?
Wisdom teeth do not always cause complications or pain, but because many people have too little space in their jaw, they sometimes grow at an angle, pushing on, or getting stuck against, other teeth. This is known as impacted wisdom teeth, and it affects almost three out of four people in their 20s. A trip to the dentist for an x-ray of your teeth can tell you if your wisdom teeth are impacted.
What are the symptoms?
- Pain and tenderness in the gums and jaw;
- Headaches;
- Swelling or redness in the gums;
- An unpleasant taste in the mouth when you bite in the area of the wisdom teeth;
- Bad breath;
- In more rare cases, symptoms include swollen glands in the neck or problems opening your mouth.
Impacted or just coming out?
Some people can experience slight pain or unpleasant feelings when the wisdom teeth appear, even if they are not impacted. When teeth are coming out a mouthwash of lukewarm, salty water can help (tasty stuff). Painkillers such as paracetamol or Aspirin® can also relieve short-term pain. Good dental hygiene is vital as infections can develop when the teeth are coming out, but if symptoms and pain persist consult your dentist.
How can it be treated?
Impacted wisdom teeth are normally removed in a dental surgery under local anaesthetic , but sometimes general anaesthetic will be needed. It is a common procedure, and more than 50,000 operations are carried out each year. The dentist will cut through the gum, break the tooth into pieces and remove it. Self-dissolving stitches will sometimes bee needed close the gum. Slight bleeding, swelling and pain are normal after the operation and will recede in a few days, but an operation can occasionally lead to more serious complications, such as dry socket . Post-surgery problems are more common if you are over 24 years-old when you have the operation.
Is surgery always necessary?
If the tooth is pressing into the surrounding gum the problem can sometimes be solved by a simple procedure of cutting back the gum. If surgery is not deemed necessary by your dentist, regular check-ups are important to make sure problems do not occur.
Wisdom teeth in Brief
Wisdom teeth are the third and final set of molars that most people get in their late teens or early twenties. These teeth come in behind the 2nd molars if there is room for them and they are aligned properly. Typically a person will have four wisdom teeth: upper left, upper right, lower left, and lower right. Sometimes these teeth can be a valuable asset to the mouth when healthy and properly aligned, but more often, they are misaligned and require removal. Most people have four wisdom teeth, but it is possible to have more or fewer. They usually appear between the ages of 16 and 24. Wisdom teeth generally cause problems when they erupt partially through the gum.
Reason often given in the past for removal include the belief that wisdom teeth can push the other teeth forward, causing crowding. Your dentist or oral surgeon may recommend that your wisdom teeth be extracted even before problems develop. This is done to avoid a more painful or more complicated extraction that might have to be done a few years later. Removal is easier in young people, when the wisdom teeth roots are not yet fully developed and the bone is less dense. In older people, recovery and healing time tend to be longer. Only our dentist can tell if we have to
remove our wisdom teeth. And only after they have had an opportunity to perform a thorough dental examination that includes x-rays.
It is a fact that the wisdom teeth that have the greatest potential for becoming problematic are those that are partially erupted as opposed to those impacted wisdom teeth that lie fully below the gum line. If there isn't enough room in the mouth for the wisdom teeth to fully emerge and fill in a gap, they can become deeply embedded in the gums and difficult to keep clean, especially below the gums. Pulling wisdom teeth is a preventative measure, and if it is determined that it is the right sort of preventative care it's wise to have the teeth of wisdom removed before they can cause problems over and over again throughout the years.
A tooth becomes impacted due to lack of space in the dental arch and its eruption is therefore prevented by gum, bone, another tooth or all three. If a decision is made not to remove impacted wisdom teeth they should be evaluated regularly including the use of dental x-rays so to ensure that no pathological conditions are developing.
SELF HELP TO PREVENT PAIN AND INFECTION:
1.To ease pain from a toothache place either ground clove or pure food grade clove oil on the affected tooth. This has worked better than any other drug to relieve pain from a toothache.
2.Gargle a mixture of salt and warm water.
3.Gargle a shot of whiskey or rum for young adults teething "wisdom teeth".
4.A cool tea bag of any variety of tea containing tannic acid, such as green, black or oolong, can stop bleeding problems that often follow a tooth extraction.
5.Place a cool tea bag over the spot where your tooth was pulled, then bite gently. The tannic acid in the tea helps promote clotting, which will help stop your bleeding.
6.You can also curb extraction bleeding with a Tea Bag.
7.Rinse mouth 4 times daily with a solution of 5 drops of mother tincture added to one glass of boiled cooled water or with salt solution ,1 teaspoon salt added to a glass of warm water.
8.The juice of wheat grass acts as an excellent mouthwash for tooth decay and cures toothaches. Wheat grass can be chewed with beneficial results. It draws out toxins from the gums and thus checks bacterial growth.
