As a person reaches their late teens or early twenties a third set of molars are cut, these are commonly referred to as “wisdom teeth” and if they actually do grow correctly there are of benefit, the problem is, very few do. Most wisdom teeth come in awkwardly and eventually have to be extracted by a dentist in Chicago IL.
In many cases wisdom teeth will grow angled inwards or outwards, they can even grow horizontally. This degree of misalignment is damaging to the surrounding teeth and need to come out. In some cases the teeth fail to completely cut through the gum, this allows the entry of bacteria which can result in an infection. An infected wisdom tooth is very painful and is the cause of swelling and a stiff jaw. A tooth that fails to emerge completely is also subject to decay as it is impossible to clean properly.
If your wisdom teeth have not emerged by the time you reach your early twenties you should arrange a visit to your dentist in Chicago IL. The dentist will take X-Rays of the area to determine the exact position of the teeth or whether you even have them. If the X-Ray images show that they are misaligned the dentist will remove them. Removing wisdom teeth before problems start is highly recommended as the potential for future problems is quite high. Young people usually have less problems with early removal of the teeth as the root has yet to fully develop and the bone mass in the area is not as dense; older patients take longer to heal from an extraction.
The location and position of the wisdom teeth have a big bearing on how easy or how difficult it is going to be for the dentist in Chicago IL to extract them. If they have broken the surface completely the extraction is little different than extracting any tooth. If however, the tooth has grown in laterally or surrounded by bone mass then removal will have to be accomplished surgically. The dentist will have to open the gum and expose the tooth, at times the dentist will break the tooth into smaller pieces to ease the extraction process; this also eliminates the destruction of jaw bone that invariably comes out with the tooth.
The area surrounding the extraction site is numbed with local anesthetic, the same procedure you would expect if you were having a cavity filled or another tooth extracted. If you are extremely anxious about the procedure the dentist can control this emotion by introducing nitrous oxide or an oral medication such as Valium. The dentist knows best and the focus of his or her attention is to remove the tooth as quickly and painlessly as possible.
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