I had two lower wisdom teeth removed last year. They were infected and need to be removed. The upper wisdom teeth, while they are in the wrong position and stick out a bit, they were not infected. My sister said it was a mistake not to get them out at the same time. However, they’re not infected, just useless. Was it a mistake to not get them out?
Elena
Dear Elena,
I’m glad you wrote. I agree with your sister. Your dentist did you a disservice by not having you remove all of them at the same time. It would have taken about five extra minutes for him to also remove the other two upper teeth.
While the teeth may appear useless, their real category would be better off being called tiny time bombs. There is always a chance that one of them will get infected. Even if they don’t, then they’re still a problem because they will make it harder to clean your second molars. It just makes a nice handy place for bacteria to get trapped.
You didn’t say how old you are now, but the ideal time to remove wisdom teeth is between the ages of 16 to 25. After that, the risk of complications gets larger with each passing year. You’d definitely want to do it before you are forty. However, if the teeth get infected, then you won’t have a choice but to extract them.
At that point it will be a dental emergency. Believe it or not, people still die from untreated tooth infections every year. Most of the time people avoid dental treatment because they are afraid. However, for wisdom tooth extractions, dental sedation makes it an anxiety-free and pain-free experience.
I would talk to your dentist about getting the other two teeth removed before they are a problem.
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