Category: Surgery

What Should You Know About An Impacted Wisdom Tooth?What Should You Know About An Impacted Wisdom Tooth?

Dental patients who develop an impacted wisdom tooth need fast dental services to manage it. Once the wisdom tooth becomes impacted, the dental patient could experience several symptoms that make them uncomfortable. Some instances of an impacted wisdom tooth could become life-threatening. Emergency dental services can resolve the issue.

What Are Impacted Wisdom Teeth?

Dental patients may ask, “what does impacted wisdom teeth mean?” Essentially, an impacted wisdom tooth is one of the third molars to erupt through the gum lines when there isn’t enough space for the tooth to move into its proper position. It becomes impacted because it cannot move down like all the rest of the molars, but instead, the tooth erupts sideways at the back of the mouth.

What Causes Impacted Wisdom Teeth?

The most common causes of impacted wisdom teeth are overcrowding of the other molars, small jawlines, and a failure to erupt through the gum line. In addition, if the third molars are trapped below the gum line, they can become impacted.

With patients who have impacted wisdom teeth, the tooth will partially erupt through the gum line and cause a gum flap, and this causes bacteria to grow inside the gum flap. An infection or an abscess is likely to develop because of bacteria trapped inside the gum flap.

What Are Symptoms?

The symptoms of impacted wisdom teeth include red or bleeding gums, tender or swollen gums, jaw discomfort, swelling throughout the jaw, unpleasant breath, unpalatable taste in the mouth, and difficulty opening the mouth.

Patients may experience pain and discomfort because of the impacted wisdom tooth. In addition, if an infection develops, they may notice swelling of the jaw or face. If this happens, the patient needs to contact their dental professional for emergency dental treatment. It is one of the more severely impacted wisdom teeth symptoms that could become life-threatening.

What are Complications of Impacted Wisdom Teeth?

After the patients get an answer to “what is an impacted wisdom tooth,” they can move on to find out what complications are possible. When it comes to impacted wisdom teeth, the patient could sustain damaged teeth, cysts, decay, or develop periodontal disease.

If a cyst or abscess occurs, that could increase the risk of infections and allow bacteria to reach the bloodstream. In addition, the position of the wisdom tooth could prevent the patient from brushing surrounding teeth properly, and cavities could develop at any time. Therefore, dental patients should consult an oral and maxillofacial surgeon immediately to avoid complications and severe health risks for impacted wisdom teeth.

What Is the Treatment for An Impacted Wisdom Tooth?

With impacted wisdom teeth, the oral and maxillofacial surgeon will review the condition of the teeth and determine if there are underlying issues. For example, if the tooth is crooked, the oral and maxillofacial surgeon could remove a tooth nearby the wisdom teeth to allow them to go into their proper position. If there are other issues such as infections, abscesses, cysts, or tumors, the oral and maxillofacial surgeon performs impacted wisdom teeth removal surgery.

The oral and maxillofacial surgeon will need to provide antibiotics to eliminate infections and heal the abscess. The medications will manage any facial swelling and get the patient away from life-threatening circumstances. After removal of the tooth, the oral and maxillofacial surgeon may provide another prescription for antibiotics and pain medication. The patient will follow aftercare instructions to prevent a dry socket.

Dental patients may experience an impacted wisdom tooth if their mouths are overcrowded. The most common cause of an impacted wisdom tooth is overcrowding and crooked teeth. Dental patients may experience severe symptoms and complications if they do not get proper treatment quickly. Dental patients can learn more about treating an impacted wisdom tooth by contacting an oral and maxillofacial surgeon now.

Dental ImplantsDental Implants

A dental implant is a surgical component that interfaces with the bone of the jaw or skull to support a dental prosthesis such as a crown, bridge, denture, facial prosthesis or to act as an orthodontic anchor. – Wikipedia

Despite improvements in dental care, millions of Americans suffer tooth loss — mostly due to tooth decay, periodontal disease, or injury. For many years, the only treatment options available for people with missing teeth were bridges and dentures. But, today, dental implants are available.

What Are Dental Implants?

Dental implants are replacement tooth roots. Implants provide a strong foundation for fixed (permanent) or removable replacement teeth that are made to match your natural teeth.