Wisdom Teeth Removal in Diggers Rest

Wisdom teeth are the last teeth to arrive, usually showing up sometime between your late teens and mid-twenties. For a lot of people, they come through without any drama. For plenty of others, they don't, and figuring out which category you fall into isn't always obvious until something starts to hurt.

According to the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, around 90 percent of people have at least one wisdom tooth that's impacted, meaning it hasn't fully come through the gum the way it should. That doesn't mean every impacted wisdom tooth needs to come out straight away. It does mean it's worth knowing what to watch for, so you're not caught off guard by a problem that's been quietly building for months.

Persistent Pain at the Back of Your Mouth

This is typically the first symptom. It usually starts as a dull pain that comes and goes, especially after meals, before becoming constant. Posterior jaw pain indicates a wisdom tooth that is putting pressure on another tooth or attempting to erupt into the gum tissue that cannot accommodate it.

However, the challenge is that pain can be easily overlooked in the early stages, especially when it is slight or subsides on its own for a while. Issues involving wisdom teeth do not necessarily follow a steady pattern of progression. Some individuals will experience an onset of pain, recover after some weeks, only to encounter another outbreak of pain which is worse than the former.

Swollen or Tender Gums

If you experience inflammation of the gums surrounding the back molars as indicated by a reddish appearance, puffiness, or abnormal bleeding when brushing, you might be experiencing irritation or infection in the area due to the presence of a wisdom tooth. In this case, there is a flap of gum tissue around the partially erupted wisdom tooth. This is very adept at collecting food and bacteria, making the area virtually impossible to keep clean even when brushing carefully.

When this irritation persists untreated, it can become a condition known as pericoronitis, which can be described as an infection of the surrounding gum tissue.

Trouble Opening Your Mouth Fully

Jaw stiffness is one of the less obvious signs, so it often gets missed. If you notice it's becoming harder to open your mouth wide, or your jaw feels tight or sore when you're chewing or talking, this can point to a wisdom tooth growing in at an awkward angle and putting pressure on the surrounding muscles and jaw joint.

This symptom is worth paying attention to because it doesn't always show up alongside obvious pain. Some people have stiffness for weeks before they connect it back to their wisdom teeth at all.

Crowding or Shifting in Your Other Teeth

Not all wisdom teeth will get sufficient room to emerge from the gums. Sometimes, the wisdom teeth end up putting pressure on other existing teeth. When this happens, it may eventually result in crowded teeth, particularly those located in the lower front part of the mouth, even for someone who once had perfectly straight teeth or had completed an orthodontic procedure several years ago.

If you suspect that your teeth have gotten tighter than usual, or your dental check-up detected crowding, then it is worthwhile to rule out impacted wisdom teeth as the cause.

Recurring Bad Breath or a Bad Taste in Your Mouth

Since the partially emerged wisdom tooth is hard to clean, this is where food particles and bacteria usually accumulate more than anywhere else in the mouth. The result is often bad breath that cannot be eliminated by brushing, or an unpleasant taste in the mouth due to the presence of a low-grade infection in the area.

This sign is easily dismissed as some other reason, such as diet or poor oral hygiene, so it becomes the last sign associated with wisdom teeth.

Frequent Infections

Some patients have more than one infection; they develop a series of recurring minor infections. Infection with inflammation that subsides and recurs several months later, for example. An infection site that appears once, disappears, and reappears again. This recurring trend is typical for wisdom teeth that are only halfway through the gums since the exposed surface will continue to get contaminated with bacteria after the initial infection subsides.

Recurrent infections at the same site are a pretty good indicator that the source of the problem needs to be treated rather than simply its symptoms.

Reasons Why You Should Visit Your Dentist Early On

Not all wisdom teeth need to be extracted, and many people never experience any problems with their wisdom teeth throughout their entire life. However, when problems begin to occur, they do so gradually rather than all at once.

An X-ray is often the only way to see what's actually happening beneath the gum, since wisdom teeth can be causing pressure or early decay well before any pain shows up. Getting things checked while symptoms are still mild generally means simpler treatment and an easier recovery than waiting until an infection or impaction becomes more advanced. This is something any dentist in Diggers Rest would typically recommend as part of a routine check-up once wisdom teeth start to develop, rather than waiting for a specific complaint to bring it up.

If you've noticed even one or two of these signs, it's worth mentioning to your dentist at your next visit. Wisdom teeth don't always announce themselves clearly, and a lot of the early warning signs are easy to mistake for something else. Catching a problem early is almost always more comfortable than dealing with it once it's already flared up.