IMPACTED WISDOM TEETH CAN NEGATIVELY IMPACT YOUR LIFE

There’s nothing worse than waking up the day before your classes start with a sore jaw. By the time you’re in college, an aching jaw and a sore mouth can only mean one thing: your wisdom teeth are growing in. Despite common belief, the main threat of wisdom teeth is not the possibility of overcrowding your perfect smile. Wisdom teeth pose numerous threats to you and the health of your mouth if left unremoved.

Wisdom Teeth Impaction Impacts You

Wisdom teeth are your third, and final, set of molars that grow into your mouth. Typically, they start their growth during your late teens or early to mid-twenties. In rare cases, wisdom teeth may grow in properly, and your mouth may have enough space to accommodate them. Unfortunately, not everyone can be that lucky.

More commonly, a wisdom tooth will grow into your mouth but will be unable to emerge fully or at all due to the teeth surrounding it. A wisdom tooth that is unable to fully breach your gum is classified as “impacted.” Impaction can cause stiffness in the jaw, along with a dull or severe ache.

If the thought of a sore jaw for months doesn’t drive you to your dentist, the more severe consequences of an impacted tooth just may do the trick. The long-term effects of an impacted tooth can include cysts that form along the root and gums of the tooth and more severely, tooth decay. Bacteria can still reach a tooth that isn’t exposed leading to a potential infection. By removing the wisdom tooth early on, you can avoid many of the side effects associated with long-term impaction.

Kiss Your Clean Teeth Goodbye

So your wisdom teeth weren’t impacted, and they grew in just a little weird. This may seem passable at first. You’ve managed to avoid impaction, the most daunting part of wisdom teeth. Theoretically, it should be smooth sailing for the foreseeable future, but, as mentioned before, your wisdom teeth did grow in a little crooked.

When you hear the term “crooked” your mind may automatically go to how your teeth will look. You may not be worried about a crooked tooth in the back of your mouth, because it isn’t noticeable. However, the real issue isn’t how your smile looks, but how healthy your smile is with crooked molars. By allowing crooked wisdom teeth to grow fully in, you’re risking the accessibility to the teeth near your wisdom teeth. A crooked wisdom tooth can block off access to your other teeth, putting them at risk for plaque build-up and cavities.

You Thought Brushing Was Hard Before

In a perfect world, where your wisdom teeth came in correctly, you would still have many long-term issues with your smile. Due to your wisdom teeth’s unfortunate location, they can be very challenging to brush or floss regularly.

Long-term neglect of a tooth can lead to the same issues as not regularly brushing your teeth such as cavities, plaque build-up, and eventually decay. Overall, removing your wisdom teeth will help prevent problems later on in your life.

In very few cases, wisdom teeth do not require removal. Some mouths can simply accommodate the extra teeth better than others. However, in most cases, you’re saving yourself trouble by removing them. The only true drawback to removing them is a temporary sore mouth and a diet of mashed-potatoes and ice cream for a week or two. Is that all that bad compared to a life time of potential pain and infection?