Do Wisdom Teeth Always hurt??

If there is room for my wisdom teeth and they are growing in ok, will they still hurt like a bitch? Or does the pain mean something is wrong?

…Please, no speaches about seeking medical advice on a message board. That’s all I can afford. Whomever posts that I should go see a dentist and ask her should send me the money to do so.

Thanks in advance!

-Bear

I had two wisdom teeth yanked when I was a kid. (Strangely, the other two never grew in.) They grew in straight, and gave me no pain whatsoever. But my dentist convinced me to have them removed because my teeth were/are crowded together pretty badly, and there was just no room for any extra teeth. He told me they would be fine if my jaw had the space for them, though. So he doped me up good and yanked those puppies out. I kept them in a jar for years, until my wife “lost” them in a move. Beautiful, perfectly formed teeth, they were. snif I miss them sometimes…

My wisdom teeth grew in fine (Well, 3 of them did. I don’t have a 4th), and it didn’t hurt. I didn’t really notice it until I went to the dentist and he said, “You have wisdom teeth!”

Bear, a few years ago, my dentist told me that it appeared that my widsom teeth would come in straight. Therefore, he said, that I shouldn’t have to worry about getting them pulled.

However, now they are coming in. While they don’t hurt at all, my new dentist (I moved and had to switch dentists) told me I should have them pulled because they will crowd my other teeth and cause them to become crooked. She never took an X-Ray, so I don’t know how she knows what they’ll do.

So, I think that the main problem with wisdom teeth is that they can harm the alignment of your other teeth, not that they hurt coming in. Of course, I am not a dentist, I’m just sharing my personal experience.

I’m 44 and have all my wisdom teeth. Dentists have been trying to convince me to pull them on and off for years, but they’ve grown in straight, they’re healthy, and I can’t see any reason to have them pulled. So no, they are not automatically bad just because they’re wisdom teeth. It’s when they can’t grow in properly and get impacted that they’re a nuisance and should be pulled.

BTW, they grew in when I was in my twenties. It was kind of cool to be “teething” as an adult. I remember chewing on popsicle sticks and zwiebacks to help them cut through; it was painful but felt good at the same time. Gave me empathy for teething babies.

      • No. Only one of mine needed to be pulled, as it grew in impacted behind the tooth next to it. The other three are still there. None ever hurt at all (while they were there), but the impacted one would eventually get a cavity and I didn’t notice its condition until it was too late to help. - MC

First, let’s clarify–are you saying your teeth hurt? Do you mean the gums hurt where the wisdom teeth are breaking through? Or do you mean a wisdom tooth itself, or your jaw, aches?

It’s normal for the gums to be “ouchy” where the points of the molars are breaking through, but it’s temporary.

But if the teeth themselves ache, or if your jaw aches, then no, that’s not normal. That means there’s something wrong and you need to go see a dentist.

And you can decide whether you want to spend a small amount of money now and find out what’s up, and possibly pay for a simple extraction.

Or you can spend an extremely large amount of money sometime down the road, when your wisdom tooth (or even your jaw) becomes abcessed, because it’s too close to the other teeth and food particles are getting trapped in there where you can’t clean even with floss, and you are in considerable pain for at least two or three weeks, because that’s how long it usually takes for you to realize, “Hey, this toothache isn’t going to go away”, and to (a) get in to see a dentist, (b) get in to see the oral surgeon, and (c) have the actual surgery to remove the tooth, with general anesthesia and everything

An office visit and a simple X-ray is usually about a hundred dollars. It’s your body, and your wallet–you decide. :wink:

DDG said:

Just the gums hurt. Well it kinda feels like the whole back left side of my mouth hurts hurts, but if I punch myself in the jaw right there, it doesnt hurt, and it’s not sensitive or sore or anything. But when I touch my gums right there with my finger, it hurts and it’s sensitive. It feels like there is pleanty of room for it, though. But hell, for all I know, it’s just some tumor on the top of my gum and not a tooth growing in at all . . .

I think dentists differ on this. I have a wisdom tooth that is in, and it’s fine. There is room for it, and it’s a functional tooth. So like others have said, they’re not always a problem and they don’t always hurt.

I have another that is sitting in my jaw bass-ackwards and twisted. My dentist knows where it is. There is no room for it, and even if there were it would have to do a 180 degree turn to be functional. Occasionally it starts moving around and thinking about emerging and I have pain for a few days. Then it goes away. I always tell the dentist, but his stance is, we’ll take it out when it bugs me. As long as it doesn’t bug me (and it never does more than about two days every six months or so) it stays.

However, another factor can be the shape of your mouth. Some wisdom teeth may be so far behind an arch you have up by your cheekbone that it’s impossible to brush them. Then you’re just begging for decay and/or gum problems. If that’s your situation, then your dentist want to get it pulled as soon as it breaks the gumline.

My wisdom teeth didn’t hurt when they were growing in, but they never completely grew in. That is, they were only half as tall as the rest of my molars and a flap of skin kept growing over them from my gums, making it incredibly painful while eating. I’d be chewing along and CRUNCH - jam down on that flap.

Am happier without them.

I keep mine in a glass, too :wink:

Ouch, that’s smarts!
That’s wh they call 'em wisdom teeth!

Seriously, if they’re hurting you…the problem can only get worse! They can become “impacted” - a bigger mess to fix.

See a dentist; don’t try to fix it yourself! :wink:

  • Jinx

You should be lucky they are coming in.

3 of my wisdom teeth are so impacted, they aren’t coming in… they are horizontal. Apparently, wisdom teeth this impacted can still decay below the gumline (though I’m not entirely sure how this is possible.)

They are in my jawbone. “Lodged” I think is the word the dentist used.

In cases like mine, oral surgery is risky. I’ve heard horror stories where a major nerve (which runs along your jaw) is accidentally cut during surgery, which leaves the person with permanent nerve damage to their face.

NO thanks. I’ll let my head rot before I go in for (to this point) needless surgery.

So my advice is, don’t get surgery unless you have to!

Me too! Mine are in fine and never bother me, except for one smal cavity. The hygeinist kept bugging me to get them out, because she had a hard time cleaning them.

To answer the OP, pain in your gums is normal when the teeth are coming in. A flap of gum should start to come off, as mentioned, even some time before the tooth starts appearing.

Think about this. Most people don’t really have trouble with their wisdom teeth. Dentists like to pull them because they often cause problems…but many people have fully functional 3rd molars. If they come in straight, then there is no reason to have them removed. It is normal to experience some pain when new teeth come in, remember how it felt when you were a kid?

Now, if you had insurance to pay for it, then getting them removed would be no big deal. Mine were fine, in my opinion, but I was fully covered by my Dad’s insurance at the time, so I figured it would be better to do it then.

But if you do keep them, remember that they will have to be kept clean, and it’s harder to do that since they are so far back. Just make sure you brush and floss and you could be fine. Or you could destroy your whole head. But you probably will be fine. As long as there is no pain. Or at least not too much pain. Or maybe you’re screwed even if there is no pain. Well, worst that can happen is that you get an infected abcess and die. That’s not so bad. There are worse things that could happen.

Mine started coming in when I was about 12 or 13 and finished when I was around 16… they came in very, very, very slowly - so for those years it was like I was teething.
But it wasn’t pain like I’ve heard some people have, instead there were days when it felt better to chew on things. (Baby keys. Ok? I had carried baby keys in high school - I tried to make it look cool. It was the 80s, so it didn’t entirely fail. Wanna make something of it?)

I still have mine.

For what it’s worth, I’ve heard from 2 oral surgeons that if you don’t get them out before around age 25, the holes left in your jaw by the teeth will not heal completely. I’m not sure exactly what that leads to, but they made it sound bad (or at least worse than getting it done before 25). [nag] You may not need them out ever, but if you do, it’s best to get them out ASAP. If they get infected, etc. during a time when you can’t fix them (as opposed to not wanting to), you could be screwed. [/nag]

-Rob

http://superiordentalcare.com/wisdomteeth.htm

I had the two teeth on the left taken out when I was about 20 years old. They came in when I was 15 and started to bother me. The dentist just gave me a shot of novocaine and yanked them out with what was essentially a pair of pliers. He had big hands and he actually tore the left corner of my mouth by getting too many fingers and other things in there. That hurt more than the extraction, but wasn’t serious.

We decided to leave the other side in until “later” since they weren’t bothering me at all and there was “plenty of room” for them to come in. Also the x-ray showed that there was an extra tooth under one of them, perhaps waiting to come in if that one came out.

Flash forward twenty years. The two remaining wisdom teeth do not bother me, per se. Sometimes you can get some food stuck in the gums back there that can be difficult to get out, and flossing them is trickier than normal. But they have ever so slightly moved the other teeth (only on the bottom) and the bottom eye tooth can catch the inside of my gum if I am not careful when chewing. Then the soft tissue swells up and I bite it again and again. Its been a while since it has happened.

Net, and IANADentist, I would guess that you can wait. If the current tooth doesn’t come in impacted then you can wait until your financial situation stabilizes, but personally I would recommend having them all out.

All four of mine came in straight, they’re fully functional teeth, and I don’t even have that hard a time cleaning them (as if anyone needed proof I have a big mouth :slight_smile: !)

It’s normal for the gums to be sore while they’re coming in, but sore, not painful. Gnawing on something helps.

If they aren’t causing problems I see no reason on God’s green earth to get them pulled - it’s just an unnecessary medical procedure. If they are causing a problem - get 'em yanked early, because the longer you wait the worse it is likely to get.

A lot of dentists these days seem to push getting them pulled - the excuse I hear is “because you might have a problem in the future”. By that rationale I should also have my perfectly healthy appendix, gall bladder, and spleen removed, too. Uh-uh. I don’t buy it.

Now where did I put that ice skate?