What many people most commonly know as wisdom teeth are actually their third set of molars – the permanent teeth that develop and erupt at the ends of your dental ridges. Following the development of your second set of permanent molars, wisdom teeth usually begin to erupt by the age of 18. For many people, this signals the start of potentially serious wisdom tooth trouble, such as the impaction of the molars within the jawbone before they have a chance to erupt. At our Rohnert Park, CA, office, we can carefully remove impacted wisdom teeth through conservative oral surgery, helping you eliminate the source of your problems and restore your good oral health.
Why do they often cause trouble?
After the second set of permanent molars have developed, there’s often little room left on an adult’s dental ridges to accommodate anymore. Nevertheless, many people still develop a third set of molars – remnants of our ancestors and their rougher, rawer diet – and the lack of room can lead to spacing and crowding issues. Before the third molars can fully erupt from your jawbone, they can become impacted within it, continuing to grow at an angle and against your jawbone and existing molars.
What to do if a wisdom tooth is impacted
When a wisdom tooth becomes impacted, the discomfort becomes increasingly more severe as it continues to try to erupt. It can also cause extensive damage to your surrounding jawbone structure, and molars closest to it, as well as force your teeth out of alignment and lead to a host of subsequent oral health problems. If one or more of your wisdom teeth become impacted, then the best way to preserve your oral health and avoid more serious complications is to have them surgically extracted as soon as possible.
Should you remove your third molars early?
If your wisdom teeth begin to develop and seem to be doing so without issue, then you may not need to extract them for the good of your oral health. However, in some cases, we may suggest extracting them early, before any problems have a chance to arise. Because our jawbones and diets have evolved well beyond those of our ancestors, we no longer need the additional chewing power or stability to maintain a fully functional bite. Therefore, extracting wisdom teeth early won’t cause any adverse effects on the health and integrity of your smile or bite.
Learn more about extracting wisdom teeth
If you have one or more impacted wisdom teeth, then extracting them is the only way to relieve their discomfort and avoid the potentially serious problems they can cause for your oral health. For more information, schedule a consultation by calling Santa Rosa Oral Surgery in Santa Rosa, CA, today at 707-545-4625.
