I had my normal check-up today at the dentist. The annual x-rays turned up a pericoronal radiolucency of a goodly size, so I’m off to the oral surgeon in a couple days to see if there is a dentigerous cyst.
I googled and read some, trying to get a feeling for what this is, but as I am not very educated in dental/medical terms, and everything I could find was pretty technical, I’m a bit vague about what this is or could turn out to be. Any dental professionals in the house who can translate?
Note - not looking for medical advice - I’m already set up to get this removed along with the wandering wisdom tooth associated. My dentist’s office was hopping this morning and I didn’t want to take up a lot of his time. I assumed it would be something I could get info on without keeping everyone in the waiting room waiting.
Also, the x-ray is pretty cool, especialy compared to my last one. Looks almost identical to the ones I have found online.
Pepper Mill is a Certified Dental Assistant. She says that a Dentigerous Cyst is a cyst around the Dentition (the tooth itself), and is possibly an infection caused by the wisdom tooth. It’s in the bone (The “peri-” means “around” and “coronal” means “crown”. So it’s around the top of the tooth)
A dentigerous cyst is a simple, benign cyst that forms around the crown of an unerupted or partially erupted tooth. It’s lined by a layer of skin-type cells (squamous epithelium), and is thought to be due to a developmental “quirk” where the cells which normally produce the tooth enamel continue to grow inappropriately. Dentigerous cysts are harmless in themselves, but if they get large they can weaken the bone in the jaw enough to cause a fracture, and they can also become infected. If not removed completely, they may recur.
Anecdotal - my father has a cyst in his jaw that may be the same kind–I haven’t heard him use the term “dentigerous”. His dentist/oral surgeon put in a shunt to drain fluid from his cyst, because they are afraid it has weakened the bone and they want the bone to regrow some before they yank the tooth out. So a couple of times a day he has to drain and clean the shunt. Originally, it was only supposed to take 6 months or so, but he has had it in for over a year now.
