Wisdom Teeth
Wisdom Teeth
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Everything you need to know
about Wisdom Teeth
The arrangement and purpose of teeth are used to classify them. A meal is torn into tiny bits by your front teeth, which are sharper, while your rear teeth, which are flatter, crush the food. The molars are these broader teeth. Each set of adult molars has four teeth on the top, bottom, and sides of the mouth. Adults have three sets of molars.
Humans grow their initial set of “baby” teeth from infancy through early adolescence, lose them, and then create a brand-new set of teeth that they will keep for the rest of their lives. However, just two sets of molars, totalling eight teeth, erupt at the same time as those adult teeth. Most adults begin to erupt their third set of molars, which are the furthest back, between the ages of 17 and 21. As they erupt last and when you’re “older and wiser,” these molars are more generally referred to as wisdom teeth.
This third pair of molars may have been necessary because of the harsh diets of our ancestors, who likely ate less soft meat than we can cook nowadays.
How soon do wisdom teeth erupt?
All of a person’s teeth, located higher up in the anatomy of the skull, are present at birth. 20 baby teeth first erupt and then fall out in a set. 32 permanent teeth then erupt. Typically, the first set of molars appears around age 6, the second set around age 12, and the last set, or wisdom teeth, before age 21.
Anthropologists think that humans have progressively evolved past the necessity for wisdom teeth due to the simplicity of modern diets, therefore some people may never obtain any. Like the appendix, wisdom teeth are prone to disappear and cease to exist entirely. Eventually, they might just vanish.
However, the majority of adults today get their wisdom teeth. According to one study, at least 53% of adults aged 25 and above had at least one wisdom teeth erupt. They were more common in men than in women.
Your wisdom teeth may not be completely visible, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Sometimes wisdom teeth never fully develop and never show. If you have wisdom teeth buried behind your gums, an X-ray can confirm this.
Complications with wisdom teeth
The jaws of humans have shrunk over time. Several factors have presumably contributed to this evolutionary advancement. According to some scientists, the jaw shrank over time to make room for the expanding human brain. The majority of wisdom tooth issues are brought on by the simple fact that they don’t fit properly.
Whether or not they are visible, wisdom teeth can harm one’s oral health. Impacted teeth are wisdom teeth that have not yet broken through the gums. This can occasionally lead to even more issues than wisdom teeth that are visible.
Among the issues brought on by wisdom teeth are:
Infection of wisdom teeth
For several reasons, wisdom teeth are more prone to infection than the majority of other teeth. Because of their location in the very back of the mouth, it can be challenging to floss properly adjacent to them, which encourages the growth of bacteria.
Wisdom teeth can also stay partially impacted because they erupt into an already-crowded mouth, leading to additional difficult-to-reach crevices. Pericoronitis, an infection, can develop occasionally when soft tissue covers partially impacted wisdom teeth.
The following are examples of wisdom tooth infection signs and symptoms:
- Sensitivity or discomfort
- Swelling or sensitive gums
- Bleeding or red gums
- Oozing or white fluid surrounding the teeth
- Bad breath
- A bad taste in your mouth
- Jaw ache
- Jaw enlarging
- Rigid stiff jaw
- Trouble speaking, breathing, or opening your mouth
Schedule a dental appointment if you suffer pain near your back molars.
Treating an infection from a wisdom tooth
Depending on the severity and positioning of the tooth, a wisdom tooth infection can be treated in several ways. In order to treat the infection, your dentist will first advise taking antibiotics. The greatest technique to prevent reinfection once the region has been cleaned of infection is through dental work or surgery.
In order to reduce the number of areas where bacteria can accumulate, your dentist may choose to fix the tooth by filling in a cavity or any crevices near the eruption site.
In some circumstances, surgery—including partial or complete tooth removal—is the best option for keeping the area clean and averting more agony.
Your dentist can guide you through each choice for your particular mouth.
Why do wisdom teeth need to be removed?
Even when there are no infections, wisdom teeth are frequently extracted. Your dentist could advise having them removed as they start to emerge since they could crowd your mouth when they erupt, perhaps harming or shifting other teeth and causing pain in the future.
To prevent these teeth from erupting later and undoing all the hard work of sculpting your jaw and teeth, dentists will occasionally advise wisdom tooth removal before any orthodontic work, such as braces.
Teenagers should be assessed for wisdom tooth extraction surgery. Younger patients tend to recover more quickly from surgery since the roots and bone have not yet fully developed. This can assist in stopping any possible issues before they ever arise.
When selecting whether or not to have these teeth removed, make sure to ask a lot of questions because there are always dangers involved with surgery. Your dentist must keep a close eye on your wisdom teeth if you decide against having them removed. Over time, wisdom teeth often cause extra issues.
Your wisdom teeth can be extracted by either an oral and maxillofacial surgeon or a qualified dentist. You’ll receive detailed information on how to get ready for surgery and what to do afterwards.
Recovery after wisdom tooth removal
Following surgery, your mouth is more susceptible to infection, so it’s crucial that you adhere to your dentist’s recommendations for keeping your wounds clean. This probably entails gargling with salt water, quitting smoking, and avoiding meals with seeds or other small particles that could get lodged in your healing gums.
Though recovery from wisdom tooth removal typically takes a few days, some pain may linger for as long as a week. Inquire with your dentist about the safest painkillers to take.
Although recovering after wisdom tooth removal can be painful, for many people, it’s an excellent method to avoid needing more dental surgeries in the future.