If you never heard of wisdom teeth before, then you may be surprised to find yourself still growing teeth well into your adulthood. Fortunately, most people recognize what wisdom teeth are, and more importantly, they’ve heard (at least to some degree) about the problems wisdom teeth can often cause. Because of these problems, extracting wisdom teeth is often an important part of preserving your smile’s health and integrity. Today, we explore a few things you should remember about your wisdom teeth, and why extracting them is typically the best way to deal with them.
They’re actually your third set of molars
The more official name for a wisdom tooth is a third molar because they’re the third set of permanent molars that you develop at the back of your dental ridges. Before them, you’ve already developed enough molars to generate plenty of chewing power to last you for life. This means your wisdom teeth aren’t exactly necessary to helping you maintain a healthy, fully functioning bite. This is important to remember if your wisdom teeth start to cause trouble because they’ve become impacted.
They don’t always hurt right away
For some people, wisdom teeth might never cause problems. For others, however, the problems may not be noticeable until the impaction of the wisdom teeth becomes severe. Wisdom teeth can become impacted, or obstructed, within your jawbone in a wide variety of ways, and at nearly any angle. Depending on the specifics, you might not feel any discomfort until the molars have already neared the point where they should have erupted. Or, you may begin to feel discomfort in their earlier stages of development, as they become impacted within the jawbone.
You can extract them without replacing them
The good news about wisdom teeth being a third set of molars that you don’t necessarily need is that you don’t have to contemplate how to preserve your smile after extracting them. With most other types of teeth, extraction should be followed by replacing the removed tooth to restore your bite’s ability to function properly. However, your remaining molars will be enough to maintain your proper bite function, which is why we may recommend extracting wisdom teeth before they have a chance to cause significant discomfort.
Learn more about your wisdom teeth
If your wisdom teeth are causing problems, or you’re worried that they might, then don’t hesitate to find out if you should extract them. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, call Santa Rosa Oral Surgery in Santa Rosa, CA, today at 707-545-4625.
