I have all four of mine. They make me no wiser. Alas…
Narrad, go see a dentist…they have the medical advice you seek.
Narrad, I think you’ve seen my post over in MPSIMS.
Anyway, I have two wisdom teeth left in my head. I did have four other teeth removed years ago to make room for the rest to move when I wore braces, so I never really had a problem with wisdom teeth crowding the others. As a result, my dentist recommends leaving them in in my case, unless they cause a problem.
Which is exactly what this last one did. To reference your OP, I knew the tooth couldn’t be ignored any longer–I was in so much pain, I couldn’t sleep or eat. The dentist did prescribe some painkillers and some antibiotics, and he pulled it as soon as was practical.
So my somewhat opinionated answer to your OP is that you should either wait for the wisdom teeth to cause you problems (like pain, as mine did) or follow your dentist’s recommendations after he or she examines the area and studies the x-rays. Your dentist can tell you if you need to have them pulled immediately, or if it can be put off for a while.
I put mine off for about 4 years. They told me four years ago that I needed them out then, but I never went through with it. Now my upper front teeth are slightly crooked. I finally got them out this past june. Everything went well, I was scared to death about it beforehand. I was eating within a week. Except I had a dry socket, which required me to go to the dentist every single day to get a dressing change for a week. And I had to squirt out my sockets with a syringe for about a month afterwards every time I put food in my mouth.
Unless they are impacted taking them out is not that big a deal. It hurts for a while and then it is sore for a few days. I had all 4 taken out by the time I was about 30. I had 1 impacted but the other 3 just had a lot of cavities.
There are dentists now who do sedation - they put you to sleep for the whole time you are in the chair. I don’t do that but my dentist can do it using just a simple pill. It is really good for people who are very nervous and it also helps out by letting the dentist do more things at 1 time so you have less visits. Dentists have to get special training for this but if you are nervous you should look into sedation dentistry in your area.
As I tell everybody about wisdom teeth, Ice Is Your Friend. Seriously. I kept ice on my face for 45 minutes out of every hour when I had all four of mine removed over the summer, and I had no visible swelling whatsoever. Ice is great.
I put off having mine out for a year, but I did ask my dentist about it first.
I’ve ignored the “seriously impacted” wisdom teeth which a dental surgeon told me just “had to be removed or else” for over 20 years now with only the occasional twinge…