While the goal of dentistry is to preserve your natural teeth, occasionally keeping your smile healthy means removing a tooth. Wisdom teeth, also known as third molars, may require removal to prevent serious complications. Learn more about this process in today’s quiz!
Try Our Quiz on Wisdom Tooth Extraction
- True or False: Third molars can lead to problems upon eruption.
- True or False: We can remove them before they arrive.
- True or False: The process will be comfortable.
- True or False: We can also address infected or several damaged teeth.
Answer Key
- True. Your smile comfortably holds 28 teeth, but when the wisdom teeth erupt in the late teens or early 20s, your smile is suddenly forced to accommodate up to 32 teeth. Patients can develop misalignment, which in turn increases the risk of tooth decay, gum disease, TMJ disorder, and even bruxism. The new teeth could also only partially erupt. Also known as impaction, this can lead to pain and infection.
- True. As you approach the age that the third molars typically arrive, we will begin monitoring your smile. If it looks like problems will arise form their eruption, we may suggest extraction. The procedure involves removing the teeth from your jaw before they even erupt, safeguarding your smile against alignment issues.
- True. We will administer a local anesthetic before proceeding. We will also discuss options to help you enter a clam and relaxed state throughout the removal process.
- True. Extraction can also be used to address severely damaged teeth if the breakage is too severe for repair. We can then discuss replacement options. If you have an infection that could potentially spread to surrounding teeth or into the jawbone, we can remove the tooth to prevent this as well.
Do You Have Questions About Wisdom Tooth Extraction?
At Mai Dentistry, we can remove third molars to help you maintain a healthy smile! To learn more about our practice, or to schedule your next appointment, call our Garland, TX office today at (972) 530-0552. For our patients who don’t speak English, our office is fluent in both Spanish and Vietnamese.
