Impacted Wisdom Teeth
What Are Wisdom Teeth?
Third molars are commonly referred to as wisdom teeth. They are usually the last teeth to develop and are located in the back of your mouth, behind your second molars. Their development is usually completed between the middle teenage years and early twenties, a time traditionally associated with the onset of maturity and the attainment of wisdom.
What Is An Impacted Tooth?
Impaction is another way of saying covered with bone or gum and visible in the mouth. Even though most people have 32 adult teeth, not all of them, are able to errupt (come out) completely to facilitate oral hygiene. When teeth are impacted this inadvertenly causes difficulty in maintaining them clean and causes multitude of problems such as periodontal disease, cavities, cysts and infections.
Types Of Impactions
Your first visit with us will be very informative where we'll discuss your particular situation and risks and benefits of available treatment options to you. A special x-ray of your mouth and jaws (panorex) will be taken to determine if your wisdom teeth are impacted, if there is room for them to erupt, and how difficult it will be to have them removed. Our office is also equiped with the most adavanced state of the art 3- dimensional X-ray that allows an incredible level of visualization of the wisdom teeth and surrounding structures.
- Soft Tissue Impaction: The tooth is out of the bone but not out of the gum. Cleaning of the tooth extremenly difficult and food constantly gets stuck in the area.
- Partial Bony Impaction: Only part of the tooth is out of the bone, the rest of the tooth is completely burried and covered by gum. This is the most common situation and is plaqued with perpetual and cyclical discomfort.
- Complete Bony Impaction: The tooth is completely covered by the bone and usually positioned in a very unsual way. The surgery to remove the tooth requires complex procedures as to avoid damage to the adjacent structures.
