Impacted wisdom teeth are molars that emerge improperly at the rear part of our mouth. They erupted either incompletely, misaligned, or at incorrect angle. Through the use of x-rays, the dentist can determine whether these molars pose serious dental issues or potential dental threats in the future. They needed to be removed for several good reasons. Anyway, all of these will also be explained by the attending dentist right after he/she performed an assessment of the patient’s overall oral condition. However, you must know that there are risks associated with wisdom tooth extraction. These are usually called impacted wisdom teeth complications.
The two most common risks related to impacted wisdom tooth removal are dry sockets and paresthesia, also known as nerve damage. Learning about these two impacted wisdom teeth complications will help you avoid further dental problems. Dry socket is often characterized by foul smells and painful post-surgical experience that sometimes take place after a few days of tooth extraction. When blood clotting didn’t develop in the extracted tooth’s socket or has been dried up, a dry socket is then formed. The formation of blood clot is vital for the bone and tooth’s socket for the healing process. With the absence of blood clot, the bone is unhealthily exposed.
You will realize that a dry socket is affecting you when you are experiencing dullness and pains after a couple of days of tooth extraction. This can initiate from a mild throbbing to intolerable pain. Other symptoms of dry socket include foul odor and unpleasant taste. This wisdom teeth complication usually develops at the extracted lower wisdom teeth. Wisdom tooth removal that involves surgical extraction often generates greater impacted wisdom teeth complications as opposed to non-surgical procedures. However, these potential risks are not reasons for a dental patient with impacted wisdom teeth to avoid the extraction as there are more risks associated with untreated impacted wisdom teeth. Instead, it should be viewed as temporary side effects.
Paresthesia, on the other hand, is a complication that is usually experienced when the nerves nearby the jaw is bruised during the surgical process. As a result, the patient experiences numbness in his/her tongue and lips, and sometimes also affecting the chin. This dental issue following a wisdom tooth removal has a similar effect to that of administered anesthesia. The only difference is that the effect of anesthesia vanishes after a few hours but the numbness caused by paresthesia is persistent. For an ordinary paresthesia, the problem can be resolved in just a few days. But for severe cases, the healing period can reach up to several weeks and months. It can even be permanent if the damage of the nerve is significantly severe.
Paresthesia is a sensory type complication and not a motor occurrence. This means that the affected person only experiences altered state of sensation like pain, touch, and temperature but does not suffer from nerve issues like compromised tongue movements, facial deformities, or speech deficits. The removal of wisdom teeth impacted during one’s early adulthood is one of the best ways to avoid further complication brought by paresthesia. This is also the reason why dentists highly recommend the extraction of impacted wisdom tooth during one’s teenage days.
Are you experiencing pain in your gums, jaw, or sometimes on your neck? If so, those are signs of dental abnormalities called wisdom teeth impacted. For others, they may be suffering from teeth grinding and teething due to soreness and pain. For you to know whether you have this kind of dental irregularity, visiting a dentist at least twice a year will be of great help. If ever you have impacted wisdom teeth, your dentist will most probably recommend you an impacted wisdom teeth removal through minor surgery. Well, what are wisdom teeth anyway?
Wisdom teeth are referred to as molars. They are the chewing type of teeth located at the farthest part of the mouth. The first molars are seen near the front teeth and then followed by the second and third molars at the back. The third molars are known as the wisdom teeth. These teeth erupt during the stages of a person’s late teens or early twenties usually from 18 to 24 years of age. Some eruptions, though, also commonly occur outside this range. If there is an ample space for the wisdom teeth, they will erupt properly in perfect alignment. However, if a tooth failed to emerge at the projected place because the person’s jaw can no longer accommodate the tooth, this failure is called the impacted tooth in dental terminology.
Wisdom teeth impacted removal is the best solution for this kind of teeth abnormality. Because if they are not removed, impacted teeth will lead to serious problems like damaged nerve, ruined jaw, agonizing neck pain and other related issues. Hence, taking care of your wisdom impacted tooth immediately will help you avoid further problems. However, before getting yourself into any teeth removal procedures, you may want to decide which condition of treatment you prefer the most during the process. Do you wish to take the treatment procedure while fully awake and under local anesthesia or while asleep? For many dental patients, opting for removal procedure while in a fully conscious state is much safer than being dead to the world.
When you have chosen to go through under local anesthesia, you will be given a series of shots to make your mouth feel numb. Right after that, your dentist will begin the surgical process by taking the impacted wisdom teeth out. The surgical procedure usually revolves around putting pressure on the wisdom teeth and removing them out. And then the area where the surgery took place will be stitched back. Thereafter, you will wait until the lacerated part heals.
During wisdom teeth impacted recovery, it is normal for patients experience pain for about a week or two weeks because of the surgery. The lacerated gum will become quite swollen. Basically, the attending dentist will then prescribe you pain relievers to ease the ache until you fully recover from the treatment. During the recovery period, rinsing your mouth with warm salt water will also be of big help in reducing infection risk. Your dentist will also provide you further instructions on how to maintain safe oral hygiene and be free from oral infection.
Thinking of undergoing an impacted tooth removal but don’t know the cost? Well, you might find this article helpful. Wisdom tooth impacted removal cost actually depends on how impacted wisdom tooth is extracted. Among the different ways of wisdom tooth extraction include soft tissue impaction, partial bony impaction, full bony impaction, and non-surgical wisdom tooth extraction. All of these surgical and non-surgical methods do have their corresponding rates.
Soft Tissue Impaction
This method deals with partially erupted wisdom tooth. It involves incisions in the gum tissue so as to expose the tooth. Thereafter, the tooth is extracted. Then the gum tissue is repositioned and stitched back. Soft tissue impaction can cost you around $225.00 to $400.00.
Partial Bony Impaction
This wisdom tooth extraction procedure deals mainly with the crown portion of the wisdom tooth which is stuck in the jawbone. In short, this extraction also involves making incisions in taking the wisdom tooth out. There is the need to cut the overlying gum tissue to reveal the tooth and the nearby bone tissue. It also requires bone mass removal in the surrounding part of the tooth and then the tooth is extracted thereafter. Then the gum tissue is positioned again and back into place. The price of partial bony impaction is around $275.00 – $450.00.
Full Bony Impaction
When it comes to its cost, full bony impaction is much more expensive than the two preceding extraction methods. This treatment will cost you around $325.00 – $500.00. In this condition, the wisdom tooth is completely enclosed in the jawbone. So, this needs incision more than any other impacted wisdom tooth removal procedures. And just like the partial bony impaction, the overlying bone tissue is also removed but the wisdom tooth must be cut into pieces first before it is extracted. The lacerated gum tissue is again repositioned and stitched back thereafter.
Non-Surgical Wisdom Tooth Extraction
This method is much cheaper than the rest because this time the wisdom tooth can be removed easily. There is no need for any surgical procedures. The wisdom tooth erupted properly on the expected location. So, the dentist just needs to remove the tooth. The extraction would be just like a normal tooth extraction method. This is done to avoid future dental problems like crowded teeth at the back of the mouth. This procedure can only cost you around $100.00 – $200.00.
So, there all you go. Those are the different extraction methods and each estimated wisdom tooth impacted removal cost. However, there are also other considerations that can add to the total cost of impacted wisdom tooth extraction. If the patient requires the administration of some type of analgesia or sedation during the extraction procedure, the total costs will surely increase. For the use of nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, the additional cost can be in between $40.00 and $90.00. If the method requires the administration of intravenous sedation, there will be an additional cost of around $250 to $400.00. But be informed that you no longer need to add for the local anesthesia. This is already included in the tooth extraction package.
