Wisdom teeth removal - Am I just making my dentist richer???

[Gigi22]

I had my wisdom teeth taken out when I was in university. The upper teeth got impacted while I was in grad school, and had to come out over Christmas; I later had the lower teeth removed as a preventative measure, as the dentist informed me that it was only a matter of time until they became impacted too. Using hindsight, I would have preferred having them all out when I was still in H.S., or even better, during summer vacation--as I became quite ill after getting my impacted teeth out (I was rundown), and lost class time at grad school.

 

[mjkacmom]

Or a dry socket from getting your wisdom teeth removed - and no I wasn't/am not a smoker.

I still advocate getting wisdom teeth taken out if the dentist recommended it. Mine hadn't come in by 19 but my teeth are crowded as it is/was. It had been recommended by at least two dentists that I get it removed since the age of 16.

I gave birth to 5 children, the regulation way and a c/s, and the pain combined was so much less than my dry socket!

 

[deerhart]

I had mine out at 24. I got a cavity in my lower right one and the tooth ended up cracking. They went ahead and removed all 4. My recovery was pretty easy (no problems really). My wisdom teeth did not full come in until I was almost 20 though (I had plenty of room for them in fact I have room for two sets of them). Today, the sockets where the teeth were have almost completely been covered over by bone growth.

 

[trip]

Around here, it seems it is routine for them to be removed over Christmas break of their senior year of high school.

 

[Anjelica]

I gave birth to 5 children, the regulation way and a c/s, and the pain combined was so much less than my dry socket!

LOL - Give me almost any other type of pain.

It was a fiasco - long story short they called in a higher dose of pain medicine for me to take until Monday when the dentist would be in (This was a Saturday by the time the pain of the dry socket was full force). Well they "forgot" that I was allergic to codiene/morphine and I was such in pain I didn't think to look before taking it - yes dumb on my part. All night Saturday/Sunday I'm in horrible pain and vomiting from the pain medicine as it had codiene in it.

The best part of the whole thing was when I went in on Monday to get it "packed" they didn't give me any numbing as they said it would only take a second. They cut open the stick and irrigated it - now folks when you have a dry socket the hole is not healing correctly so its usually just liquid. When they irrigate it they are putting saline solution DIRECTLY on your open wound/ex-root/JAW BONE area. They are pouring solution with no numbness DIRECTLY on the JAW BONE. My goggles steamed up so quickly from my tears.

Once they packed it after irrigation it felt 10 times better. Thankfully I got all 4 done at once and don't ever have to worry about it again.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

I have all 4 of my wisdom teeth they all came in during college. I remember thinking "hey I'm teething" . Any way my first dentist as an adult looked into my mouth and noted all 4 wisdom teeth in there and "said wow we need to take those out!" I asked him why and basically his reason was simply because they were there. I said "look, they are not impacted they grew in just as they should have, I floss and brush Waaaaay back there. They have no cavities. Unless I experience a problelm with them, they are staying right where they are. " I left them in, where they still are today, 20 years later. The original dentist sold his practice and retired and I now see a different dentist who is quite impressed by my wisdom teeth and how well I have taken care of them. I'm kind of proud of them actually! I have had no cavities or shifting due to them. I am probably one of the few lucky ones and I am hoping my kids inheirited my lucky wisdom teeth.

My Dh on the other hand had his out in his mid 20's after suffering for years with impacted wisdoms. His parents refused to have them taken care of as well as anything above a cleaning. He had several cavities as well that were never taken care of as a kid. This was despite having insurance. His sister on the other hand has a perfect mouth after having all her dental work taken care of including fillings, braces and wisdoms. Anyway that is another story for another day. DH recovered well from the surgery and has a much happier mouth since his wisdoms were taken out and his other dental issues were addressed (which was all done without dental insurance).

 

[LSchrow]

I guess God decided I should be extra wise.

hey......that does that mean i'm unwise?
i never had wisdom teeth (two molars are missing also - not removed, just never there )
the dentist said my jaw is too small, which of course i point out if anyone says i have a big mouth

after reading this thread, i'm counting my blessings

 

[WeLoveLilo05]

I just went to the dentist b/c my teeth were hurting so badly! I thought I had a cavity but it turned out that was just a stain on my tooth. The dentist told me it was my wisdom teeth causing the pressure that was creating the pain.
He said he could remove the top two himself (those really aren't causing problems) but he could not remove the bottom two as they are by that nerve that could cause your jaw to constantly feel like it has pins and needles if it gets disturbed. So, I'll have to go to an oral surgeon for those.
My sister on the other hand had braces and just got her wisdom teeth in about a year ago and has to have them all removed by the oral surgeon, they are not bothering her, she hasn't gone yet. Her teeth look fine, don't know if they will start to shift.

 

[deerhart]

LOL - Give me almost any other type of pain.

It was a fiasco - long story short they called in a higher dose of pain medicine for me to take until Monday when the dentist would be in (This was a Saturday by the time the pain of the dry socket was full force). Well they "forgot" that I was allergic to codiene/morphine and I was such in pain I didn't think to look before taking it - yes dumb on my part. All night Saturday/Sunday I'm in horrible pain and vomiting from the pain medicine as it had codiene in it.

My dh just had another tooth pulled (he's got a mess we have been working on for 8 years). The tooth was so stuck that the dentist had to send him to the oral surgery for emergency extraction and they had to grind the jaw bone down to get the tooth out. That was over 10 days ago and its still aching..

 

[princessmom29]

I wish I had not waited to have mine done. My dentist told me at 16 ther needed to come out, but I refused b/c they were not causing pain. At 20 I had 2 impaced on the top, and one that came in partially on the bottom and caused both impaction and infection. I have never hurt that bad in my life, even childbirth! They had to be chisled out of my jaw and I couldn't open my mouth wider than abotu a half inch for 2 weeks.

 

[beansmom]

I had my wisdom teeth removed in my early 20's, due to an issue. But it seems like it is done routinely these days, even if there are no problems. My daughter just met with the oral surgeon who recommended it, she is 18. He listed 101 reasons to do it, and then continued to tell us all of the "potential, yet unlikely" issues that the surgery could cause. She has beautiful teeth, and I would hate for her to have problems in the future if we delay, but it just seems silly to me to pull out perfectly healthy teeth and put her through surgery.

Any opinions out there???

Mine came in sideways, split the adjacent molar and i lost it as well. I don't miss them so I would go ahead and take them out.

 

[Sadie22]

My 17 1/2 son just got his braces off last month and went to the oral surgeon this week. They want to pull all 4 out. I was shocked that he will have to miss a week of school so we have to postpone it to the summer. His are growing in sideways but are impacted.

Like the other I would rather them get them out now while he has insurance (my ins covers 100%) and I dont want them coming in and ruining his now straight teeth.

Oldest had his out while in middle school. He did not miss a week of school; one day I think but I did have to go to school to give him Tylenol (It was easier than going through all the rigamarole to have someone at school give it and they didn't seem to be able to guarantee it woudl happen on schedule, so since I was working at home I just went to the school).

 

[trip]

duplicate

 

[arihillfarm]

You don't know what pain is until you've experienced an impacted wisdom tooth

Boy, isn't THAT true, LOL! And I've been through two natural labors and childbirth too! One of my wisdom teeth was impacted, started to break through the gum and then got "stuck" leaving a small enough hole to allow an infection to start, while on vacation no less. The dry socket in one of them after the procedure (done on a Friday so no going back until Mon. morning) was probably the worst pain I've ever experienced. The procedures themselves weren't bad, no different or worse than going in and getting numbed up for a cavity, but the aftermath of that one with the dry socket....

-Astrid

 

[Skatermom23]

My 17 1/2 son just got his braces off last month and went to the oral surgeon this week. They want to pull all 4 out. I was shocked that he will have to miss a week of school so we have to postpone it to the summer. His are growing in sideways but are impacted.

Like the other I would rather them get them out now while he has insurance (my ins covers 100%) and I dont want them coming in and ruining his now straight teeth.

Both of my teens had all 4 of their impacted teeth taken out on a Thursday afternoon and were fine for school by Monday. He shouldn't have to miss a week of school. Shoot, my DD was even shopping over the weekend!

 

[Sadie22]

Both of my teens had all 4 of their impacted teeth taken out on a Thursday afternoon and were fine for school by Monday. He shouldn't have to miss a week of school. Shoot, my DD was even shopping over the weekend!

Sports is a different matter, and a liquid or soft diet may be necessary. I think my kids had theirs out on a Thursday or early Friday also and then were able to return to school on Monday. Possibly it was a weekend when school was going to be closed on Friday or Monday so there were three days at home after the surgery. It was long enough ago I have trouble remembering. But all four teeth at one time, one bad day and then it's just healing time assuming no complications afterward.

I had more problems when I had to have a tooth extracted and an implant put in. Teens can be amazingly resilient to the point where it's hard to get them to take it easy after something like this.

 

[HappyDznyCamper]

Double check with your insurance, ours will not pay to remove wisdom teeth "just because" they might be a problem later. For the insurance to pay, there has to be a documented problem, since I don't care to lie to the insurance and our dentist won't, my DD17 will be keeping her wisdom teeth.
The dentist did say that her wisdom teeth should not cause her teeth to shift and if they do come through to just keep them clean. BTW the dentist, 50ish, still has all his wisdom teeth.

 

[bettymae1121]

I wish I'd had mine taken out as a teen (then my parents would have had to pay for it!). My dentist back then said that they were comming straight so technically didn't have to come out, but that they would crowd my other teeth. I had straight teeth without having to have braces. At the time I figured a little crowding would be okay, I'm not vain about my teeth and days of mouth pain and not being able to eat solid foods didn't sound appealing AT ALL.

15 years later, my teeth crowded a lot more than I thought they would, and my current dentist says they should come out as they have a huge potential of cavities and causing gum problems because they didn't quite come in all the way and I can't brush/floss as well as is needed. If they come out they also recomend braces to correct the crowding they cause (that would be for cosmetics only, of course).

So at the end of the day, they need to come out anyway and now I'll need to get braces if I want my formerly straight teeth back, only now I get to pay for it rather than my parents!

So, long story short, even if they aren't impacted, there are good reasons to have them pulled, both for cosmetic reasons and for oral hygene. Your dentist isn't nessesarily looking to make an easy buck.

 

[Justsyd2]

I would definitely have them removed! My parents didn't do that for me. Last year, at the age of 46 I had my ONE wisdom tooth removed, yes, I only had one (thankfully!) and the pain was far worse than childbirth! I truly wish I'd had it taken out when I was young. Since then my headaches have gone away, and my jaws do not hurt anymore.

 

[mikehn]

You know the old saying. If it aint broke, dont fix it.