Wisdom Teeth Removal

General Information?

Often times, wisdom teeth become trapped or impacted in the jawbone, or simply fail to erupt. This can cause

crowding or displacement of other teeth
lead to the development of localized tooth decay, infection, or gum disease.

Impacted wisdom teeth are set in the jawbone in unusual positions, sometimes horizontally, which stops them from erupting in a normal way. Did you know that research shows that 70% of sinusitis is caused by chronic tooth abcess.

Wisdom teeth, or third molars, are the final teeth to develop. Most of us have four wisdom teeth, one in each corner of the mouth. They usually emerge during our late teens or early twenties.

Generally if they have decay/holes in them we recommend removal. Sometimes we restore the teeth to avoid the extracting the teeth.

Why Do We Need to Remove Wisdom Teeth?

Wisdom teeth need to come out if any of the following problems are occurring:


Infection	Crowding	Cysts	Damage to nearby molars
When an impacted wisdom tooth starts to push through the gums, an infection can start around the top of the tooth. Infection and inflammation (swollen red gums) can cause pain, swelling and jaw stiffness.	A wisdom tooth may push nearby teeth out of their correct position and may cause crowding of front teeth.	Sacks of fluid called cysts can form around the tooth and may displace the tooth. The cysts can destroy bone and damage other teeth and gums. Damage to nearby molars	An impacted wisdom tooth may keep pushing against the molars next to it. This often leads to a serious damage to both teeth.

A commonly asked question is 'Why do I need four wisdom teeth out?'

The impacted tooth causing problems needs to be extracted but so does its opposing tooth. This is because teeth keep moving until they hit something. So if only one tooth is extracted then the opposing tooth will keep moving (supererupts) until it hits the gingiva of the extracted tooth, causing problems.

As it supererupts, it also increases its surface area, causing more food and bacteria to accumulate around the tooth. So having the two opposing teeth out at the same time saves the extraction procedure and consequent healing time, occurring twice.

Complications of Removing Wisdom Teeth

The most common complications of removing wisdom teeth are

pain (relieved with anti-inflammatories)
swelling (relieved with anti-inflammatories and cold ice packs
infection (generally treated with antibiotics)
inability to open your mouth properly (resolves in a few days with anti-inflammatories)
Bleeding (this is normally because a person has been spitting blood out continuously. The best way to stop it as to apply gauze in the area and bite on it for half an hour.

All these last for a few days only and are treated with appropriate antibiotics and pain killers.

Not so often complications include things such as

a dry socket (infection that is more common in smokers),
nerve bruising (this is most of the time a transient problem and very very rarely permanent),
oral antral communication (a hole that is created between the mouth and the sinus. This is very rare and easily treated as well.
fracture of the jaw (very rare)

Care after Removing Wisdom Teeth

We generally would ask you to come in for review in 2 weeks. Stitiches/sutures generally dissolve themselves and if not we remove them for you.

It is very important to remember five rules

DO take some pain killers after the procedure as per advised by us
DO use a mouthwash twice daily (warm salty mouth washes or commercial mouthwshes)
DO use cold packs over your cheeks for couple of hours after the surgery ON and OFF
DON’T spit out any blood for the first 24 hours to prevent from recurring bleeding
DON’T smoke for the first 24 to 48 hours to promote better healing

It may hurt from 2 to 14 days after removal of wisdom teeth BUT if you follow the instructions given to you, there will be MINIMAL discomfort. Most of our patients are back to work 2 days after.

Cost of Removing Wisdom Teeth

Generally the cost of removing wisdom teeth depends on the difficulty of removing the tooth and starts from 200.00 per tooth upwards.

Here, at Smile Concepts, patients also have the opportunity to have wisdom teeth extracted under Sleep Dentistry (IV Sedation) or local anaesthetic, whatever you prefer.

If you choose to remove your wisdom teeth under IV sedation ten there will be an extra anaesthetist’s cost at our practice. A specialist anaesthetist comes in and looks after the IV sedation aspect.

If you would like more information on this subject, please contact Smile Concepts directly by clicking here or ringing 02 9267 7777