Wisdom Teeth Removal

Dr. Reese’s years of experience will provide you with as uneventful an oral surgery experience as possible. If you’ve been told you need the surgical removal of impacted wisdom teeth or want a second opinion, Dr. Reese can provide a consultation session with treatment options.

What is an impacted tooth?

A tooth that is unerupted or partially erupted from the gums that cannot fully erupt is said to be impacted. This can be do to any of the following reasons:

• Lack of space (crowded teeth)
• Misalignment of teeth (tooth is rotated out of position)
• Conflicting position (another tooth has erupted into that position)
• Ankylosis – when other causes of impaction are not corrected in a timely manner, the roots of the impacted tooth can fuse to the surrounding bone creating a tooth frozen in an unerupted or partially erupted state.

The teeth most likely to become impacted are the wisdom teeth, which are also called the “third molars”. Unimpacted third molars that erupt normally are called “18-year molars, but there is rarely enough space to fit these last teeth into the small space left behind the second molars, so the third molars often become impacted.

The risks of keeping an impacted tooth are:

• Unnecessary crowding of your teeth
• Erosion of the roots of adjacent teeth
• A “food trap” that is difficult to brush or floss that could lead to tooth decay

The important thing to note about impacted teeth is that they almost always require extraction. The longer the extraction is postponed, the longer the tooth roots grow and when the tooth roots of an impacted tooth are allowed to develop, the risk of complication due to extraction increases significantly due to tooth roots that grow around sensitive facial nerves.

What is a tooth extraction?

Extraction is the complete removal of a primary or a permanent tooth. An Extraction can be surgical or non-surgical. This depends on the difficulty of the extraction and whether or not the tooth is impacted or erupted, and whether it has straight or curved roots. No one looks forward to an extraction, but modern anesthesia will help keep you comfortable throughout the procedure.