"Proactive" removal of DD's wisdom teeth...what would you do???

[agavegirl1]

TAKE THEM OUT...before they become an impacted mess like mine.

JMHO

 

[LoriNSC]

Well my dentist told me in my teens that I needed to have mine removed. But I chose not to. Fast forward to now-I'm 41 and have been experiencing awful pain from them. My gums were swollen and i got an infection. So I just had mine cut out this past Monday. It's been 2 days and I'm still in so much pain. Hurts to eat and open my mouth. I wish I had done it when I was younger.

 

[Texas Crude]

Our dentist say's that my DD, 18, should have all 4 (impacted) wisdom teeth removed to prevent future issues.

They are not causing any trouble now.

Any opinions? Should I put her through this, not to mention the cost, just because there is a potential for problems down the road?

Dentists / Doctors are no better than crooked mechanics these days. They give you 'medical advice' based primarily on what's good for their wallet -- not what's good for you. Don't be fooled.

If they're not giving her problems, why would you have unnecessary surgery??? May as well get her appendix and tonsils removes while you're at it. You know, because some day they could present problems... may as well be proactive about it!

I'd recommend getting a new dentist.

 

[luvthemouse71]

I probably would get them out now, but make sure your dentist- oral surgeon knows what they're doing anesthesia wise. That's where the true danger lies. People often focus on the surgery or procedure and give little thought to the anesthesia and who is providing it.

I am very grateful that my wisdom teeth never came in..I was born without them. My friend had hers out and looked like Pumpkin Head..I've never seen anyone swell so much!

 

[lmhall2000]

I'm 57 and still have mine. They started erupting when i was in my late 30s with no problem. I brush/floss carefully as they are way back there, but so far, so good!

Ditto! I am 45, no problem, my parents are in their 70s..both have them, they actually come in handy when you lose teeth! That will happen...I say let me keep as many as I can The jaw continues to grow and when you remove any tooth you are changing the formation of the jaw...I see grown adults whose parents were convinced their child needed 4-6 teeth pulled to get them 'straight'..now their mouths are concave and their jaw never fully extended...I see too many non-conservative dentists...my children have never had a cavity but they continually tried to sell me on sealants and additional treatments, my oldest is almost 18...great teeth and no cavities without all those 'recommendations'

 

[DisneyMagic3]

I'm a believer in waiting if/until they bother you. Why do dentists constantly push for this? I don't believe the recovery is that drastically worse when your older vs as a teen. I'd rather not do any unneeded medical procedure, but certainly not one involving dentists. I get that your mouth is important and linked to other body health areas but still. Doing it before its medically needed is a money grab.

Every.single.time I'm at the dentist they tell me mine need to come out. No sir, they do not. I'm 26 and you've been telling me this since I was an early teen. Go away now. They don't bother me and I have 2 half erupted and the other 2 not doing anything yet. IF they bug me I won't hesitate to go in.

So that's my 2 cents. Every one is different but if there's no pain what would the gain be from having them removed right now? Preventing future maybe issues isnt a good enough reason for me. So long as people listen to their body and if pain starts don't drag their feet about doing something about it all should be good. IMO

 

[holycow]

I'm 56 and still have mine, no issue. The dentist I had from age 12 to age 2005 was of the opinion Dentist who purchased his practice wanted them out immediately. He also wanted to do xrays, including panaramic xrays every 4 months, and wanted to replace every filling I had that was over 10 years old. HIS motive was profit, not my dental health.

You know I had dentist that said the same thing. I had fillings in that I had had as a child with NO PROBLEMS....I decide to do as recommended and get all my fillings replaced. What a dope I was! I've had more problems with the 'new' fillings than I ever did with the old.

 

[Fyrefly]

I'd get them out if there is no room. Mine were going to push my teeth out of alignment because I just had no room and after 5 years in appliances to correct a really bad crossbite, teeth growing in the wrong places etc. like heck I was letting that happen!

As soon as they were large enough to take out they were gone. From what I gathered people who have them out early both don't have to deal with teeth moving and the pain but also recover faster. I no doubt would have been up the next day but I learned from that little procedure I'm allergic to anesthetic so I was laid up for a week.

At least it was a relatively minor procedure to find that out during!

 

[goNDmay9]

If it is mostly seeing your daughter in pain that is stopping you, here is my experience. I had mine out in high school. That is the procedure where I found out I am allergic to codeine, yet I actually went to school and cheerleading practice the next day. Granted I was not 100%, and skipped the stunts, but I am a wuss and was able to recover with little to no painkillers. I think I ended up on Motrin.

If it is the possible unnecessary procedure you are worried about you can get a 2nd or 3rd opinion. While I do think that there are some dentists taking a hit in this economy and trying to make up for it, this is not something that you will want her to deal with later if there is indeed an issue.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

There's a difference between wisdom teeth and impacted wisdom teeth. Have the dentist show you on x-rays what he or she is talking about. Impacted teeth are very easy to spot and cause major issues from crowding to TMJ.
Removing wisdom teeth is NOT the same thing as pulling molars for orthodontia, as one previous poster mentioned.
Every patient is different. While Joe Blow may be 70 and still have his wisdom teeth without problems, Betty Sleddy might not have any wisdom teeth at all and Sue Blue might have impacted wisdom teeth. Don't let another poster convince you that your child will be fine with or without the procedure because he or she is.
If you don't trust your dentist, find one you can trust and get his or her opinion. Most are honest but, like EVERY profession, there are exceptions.

 

[englishteacha]

I waited till I was 27 to have mine out (I was told at 16 to have them out but we had no insurance so I didn't). By the time I had mine out, they were causing me headaches and had caused some of my front teeth to shift. My recovery after surgery was awful. Do it while she's in her teens. The surgeon had to remove pieces of bone to get to the teeth. Yeah. It was awful. Had I had it done as a teen before my jaw had completely finished growing, it would have been much easier.

 

[brymolmom]

I totally agree with all you said.

I just turned 50. About 10 years ago I had a problem with one and my dentist sent me to an oral surgeon. They both agreed it best to only remove the bad one so I still have 3. They both said and I agree why remove the ones not bothering me.
Our 3 kids 19-25 have theirs. No reason to mess with something that might be a problem. Deal with it if it does otherwise leave it alone.
You wouldn't dream of removing all tonsils or appendix because they MIGHT be a problem--wisdom teeth are no different.

I'm not your doctor but my best guess is that they decided to leave the other 3 in there BECAUSE you were 40. I would bet a lot of $$ that if you were 17 and having that one out - many doctors would have recommended getting them all out. They are problematic at age 40 - which is why they would go with the 'let's not touch them unless they're having issues' strategy.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Honestly, the best thing to do is to look at the X-Ray of the wisdom teeth and discuss exactly why the teeth are needed out. Mine were all straight and painless (but impacted) with room to come in, and I had numerous dentists ask me to pull them, but when pressed, they couldn't actually give me a good reason to do so except for possible problems down the road late in life. Well, ANYTHING may cause you possible problems that far down the road and this is NOT a risk-free procedure (nor a pain-free one), so I declined. I have not regretted it.

 

[Brer Shay]

I did not have mine removed until I was 26. It was a more difficult process than it would have been 10 years earlier because there were more established roots. The actual surgery, the bruising/swelling, and in my case, the dry socket, caused me to miss almost a week of work. I wish they had come out sooner when my life had less important commitments and the healing time was shorter.

 

[cheer25mom]

If they're not giving her problems, why would you have unnecessary surgery??? May as well get her appendix and tonsils removes while you're at it. You know, because some day they could present problems... may as well be proactive about it!

I'd recommend getting a new dentist.

Becuase if they are impacted it is not a question of IF they will cause a problem but WHEN and how bad will it be. It is much simpler procedure to have them removed in your teens than to wait unti they are firmly entrenched in the jawbone and have to be chiseled out like rocks in a quarry. I thought like you did and so did my parents. I paid for it in spades later when I was sitting up in bed in my dorm room in awful pain waiting for morning so I could call the dentist. And again they were using a chisel and hammer to remove my teeth in peices. I looked like I had been in a boxing match that had gone badly and couldn't eat anything but liquids for a week, it took alomost a month to be able to porperly open my mouth becuase of the amount of trauma it took to get those teeth out. My dentist did nothing wrong. I SHOULD have done as he advised and gotten them out when it would have been an easy removal.

If they are not impacted and will erupt normally you are absolutely right.Tthere is no need to take them out, but if they are truly impacted like the OP siad, then they will cause problems at some point and I would have them removed sooner rather than later.

 

[cheer25mom]

Honestly, the best thing to do is to look at the X-Ray of the wisdom teeth and discuss exactly why the teeth are needed out. Mine were all straight and painless (but impacted) with room to come in, and I had numerous dentists ask me to pull them, but when pressed, they couldn't actually give me a good reason to do so except for possible problems down the road late in life. Well, ANYTHING may cause you possible problems that far down the road and this is NOT a risk-free procedure (nor a pain-free one), so I declined. I have not regretted it.

If they are straight with room to come in properly they are not impacted. Impacted wisdom teeth are sideways in the jaw and will not erupt normally. A partially impacted tooth is tilted toward the other molars and will likely be able to erupt, but will crowd and shift the other teeth in doing so. A fully impacted tooth is horizontal in the jawbone and can do nothing but push on and damage the roots of other teeth and compress nerves causing pain and or numbness.

 

[Denine]

Our dentist say's that my DD, 18, should have all 4 (impacted) wisdom teeth removed to prevent future issues.

They are not causing any trouble now.

Any opinions? Should I put her through this, not to mention the cost, just because there is a potential for problems down the road?

I would. When mine started to come in, there was no room and a couple of my teeth started to turn. I had 2 that were tissue impaced, 1 was bone impacted and the last was normal.

 

[momfeez]

Our dentist say's that my DD, 18, should have all 4 (impacted) wisdom teeth removed to prevent future issues.

They are not causing any trouble now.

Any opinions? Should I put her through this, not to mention the cost, just because there is a potential for problems down the road?

If my dentist, whom I trust, told me that my 17 year old DD should have all her impacted wisdom teeth out, I would do it. In fact, I did do it, the day before Thanksgiving no less. Her choice as that was the only time she had nothing going on at school. She was fine the next day...no swelling, mild discomfort. She ate most of Thanksgiving dinner.

When I was 17, the dentist and orthodontist told my parents my wisdom teeth needed to come out, I didn't have room for them. We had crappy insurance, so they waited until I was 19 and had better insurance. By then, they had crowded my bottom, previously perfectly straight teeth.

So, if you trust your dentist and don't feel he is just trying to get some $$ from you, I'd suggest doing it. But, you know what they say about opinions....

 

[2disneyboys]

I had my impacted wisdom teeth removed when I was in my mid 20's as part of treatment for my TMJ (which I still ended up needing surgery to repair) Anyway, If you trust your dentist, I'd go ahead and have it done. Also, check your state & your insurance. at the time I had mine removed, because they were impacted, my regular health insurance covered it, not my dental, so all I had was a small co-pay (less than $100) and that covered the preop, operation, and post op checkups. the lady in the dentist office that handled our insurance is the one to tell me about that. I don't know if that still applies (this was about 10 years ago) or if it was just in my area or what, but she told me that because they were impacted, it was required to be covered by health insurance and it was. All we had to do was get a preauthorization and we were good to go. It never hurts to ask.

 

[amylevan]

I had all 5 of mine removed my senior year of high school, before they were causing any pain. (yes 5, i had 1 on top of the other in 1 corner which was not discovered until they started chiseling...) They were impacted, there was no room in my mouth, and after 6 years with braces I was not taking any chances of them causing movement of my other teeth. Plus, I was going into a very competitive college program, and I didn't want to have pain in the coming years while I was in school.

Moral of the story...ask your dentist why they recommend removal. Are they impacted? Sideways? Likely to cause other teeth to move?