Mt Gravatt
If you’re a student, the uni holidays are a great time to get your wisdom teeth removed. A bit of time away from the hustle and grind of uni, a chance to clear the mind knowing that you have no impending deadlines and no immediate reason to stress.
By queueing up all of your health appointments during the uni holidays, you know that you’ll not only have time for them, but you’ll also enter the next semester in top health and a few less things to worry about. If your wisdom teeth are bothering you, the uni holidays are the perfect time to get that taken care of so you can enjoy the bulk of your holidays pain-free and face the next semester with a lot more energy for study.
What are wisdom teeth?
Wisdom teeth are your third molars. When you lose your baby teeth and your adult teeth start to come in, wisdom teeth are the very last to come through. Not everyone gets wisdom teeth, with about 35% of the population lucky enough to avoid them. Of those that do develop wisdom teeth, not everyone grows four. Some people will only develop one, two or three wisdom teeth.
Wisdom teeth are the furthest back in your mouth. Due to the gradual evolution of humans to have larger brains and smaller jaws, wisdom teeth often come through awkwardly because there simply isn’t space for them. For those that do get wisdom teeth, it can be a very painful experience.
Do you have to get your wisdom teeth removed?
There aren’t many circumstances in which you’ll be able to keep your wisdom teeth. The majority of wisdom teeth come through at difficult angles due to the limited space available in the jaw. When your wisdom tooth comes out at a bad angle, this is called impaction.
When a tooth gets impacted, the results can be debilitating. An impacted wisdom tooth can push against your second molar and force it out of position, or it can cause issues with your gumline and other teeth, often leading to infection and decay. Infections arising from wisdom teeth can be extremely severe, and may spread throughout your jaw to your face and neck.
What age should you have your wisdom teeth removed?
We recommend that you remove your wisdom teeth before the age of 24. This is not saying that after this age removal can not be performed; however, your jawbone does get more brittle and dense with time so the longer your wait the more complicated the extractions can become. You should have your wisdom teeth when they begin to cause trouble, or prior to that if you’ve had the foresight to request an x-ray from your dentist.
Many dentists will question you about your wisdom teeth and will recommend an x-ray when they first begin to emerge. This is a great time to decide on a course of action for removal. From an x-ray it is usually possible to know if a wisdom tooth will become impacted and therefore with early planning you can often get treatment for your wisdom teeth preventing you from problems in the future.
Do they put you under when you have your wisdom teeth removed?
Many dentists will give you a choice as to whether you’d like to have your wisdom teeth removed under general anaesthetic or local anaesthesia. With a lot of our patients at Fix Dental we often remove them under local anaesthesia with the aide of nitrous gas. This saves our patient from expensive hospital fees associated with general anaesthesia.
How long is the recovery time for wisdom teeth removal?
Recovery times vary greatly and can depend on the particular state of your wisdom teeth, your overall health and the level of skill of the dentist who removed them. At Fix Dental, our dentists have performed thousands of wisdom teeth removals and are quite comfortable with a range of potential complications and different issues that may arise during a procedure.
You should expect a recovery time of 1-2 weeks, although it may be much quicker.
Book an appointment
We get very busy during the university holidays as students take the opportunity to book themselves in for dental appointments. This is particularly true towards the end of the year as students come home from Christmas or seek to use the dental inclusions in their health insurance prior to them rolling over in the new year.
We highly recommend you book an appointment ahead of time, particularly if you need a consultation for wisdom teeth removal, some time to have the procedure done, and a few days to recover before Christmas holidays.
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Fix Dental Chermside: 07 3520 4078.
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