forgive me if this has been brought up before (and most likely has, but as a guest, I don’t think I can search it):
Has anyone here ever just decided to forgo the dentist or dental surgeon and just let their wisdom teeth grow in?
Mine get pretty painful with the changes in season, especially during sinus headaches, but other than that, they seem like they might just grow in normally.
Maybe it’s my fear of the knife making my threshold for pain a lot higher…
Experiences anyone???
Many people accomodate their wisdom teeth all their adult lives, but many more have problems as they grow in. I let mine grow for quite a while, but the lower ones were growing in slightly beneath the second molars, and that started to hurt. The uppers were not obstructed that way, but they were sticking out to the sides, and kept rubbing and causing sores. The uppers were pulled easily; the lowers had to be dug out.
I’m about 24, and my wisdom teeth are still doing their thing. They arn’t all the way in, and they hurt a little bit sometimes (mostly I think from breaking through the gums) but it seems okay. The dentist said a while back that I would probably need to get them out at some point, but there was no hurry.
And, as I make minimum wage and have no humanly possible way to pay for anything, I hope it all turns out alright.
I still have all my wisdom teeth. They actually came in handy because when I lost a molar or two, the wisdom teeth moved down to replace the molars. But these wisdom teeth can be difficult to maintain because of their location, so many people have them pulled. If yours are actually hurting you, you should have them taken care of. Yeah, there’s discomfort, but it’ll be a distant memory in a few weeks. It’s really not that bad. Go find a good dentist.
My jaw was large enough to accomodate wisdom teeth (still is, actually) and mine came in with no trouble. Gums were a little sore for a bit, but no pain. In fact, I hardly noticed their arrival. So now I’m 40 with all four and no problems (yes, cleaning them takes a smidge of effort, but I do it anyway)
My dad is in his 70’s and still has his.
Anyhow, your mileage may vary. If they’re causing you actual pain you may need them extracted. If you do get them pulled, it’s better to do so earlier rather than later. Early extraction is easier and less prone to complications.
Well, I’m 24 now and have all 4 wisdom teeth out. My gums hurt a bit of course when they broke through but since I haven’t had any problems with them.
I still have two of my wisdom teeth; the bottom jaw was big enough for them but the top wasn’t. I think many dentists take out wisdom teeth when it really isn’t necessary to; a lot of them will grow in fine with no problems.
I’m 27 and they still haven’t even come through… although in the last couple of months they’ve been hurting occasionally… this morning for instance they are quite painful when I eat.
I think it really depends on how they grow in. In my case, my jaw is too small and they grew in sideways. Literally, I saw the X-rays and the were perpindicular to my other teeth. So there was no room for them to grow and they also really messed up all the expensive orthodontria I had recieved as a child (I should have had them pulled much earlier).
My wisdom teeth didn’t hurt after they broke through the gums, but the dentist and oral surgeon still highly recommended that I have them removed. It’s not just an issue of pain–first of all, there was a good possibility that they’d crowd my mouth and (as tremorviolet’s did) ruin the orthodontic work I’d had done. Second, it looked as though they were creating impossible-to-clean spaces that would result in food build-up and eventually serious problems with infection in the back of my mouth. You should check that that’s not going to be an issue with yours.
Mine came in a bit sideways but I never had them pulled. Then I broke one while chewing one day and decided to have them all pulled since the surgeon was in there anyway.
bit off the subject, but I had mine pulled, all three of them. What happened to the last one? My lucky older sister had five. Ha.
I still have all four of my wisdom teeth. They are in a wooden box on my bookcase.
All four were growing in horizontally, all four impacted (yowch!!). When I was 18 I had all four dug out at once. Each was almost two inches long since I have really really long teeth roots.
I looked like a gerbil with stuffed cheeks for about a week, but I never had to worry about them again.
They’re still perfectly white and whole, and don’t cause me the least bit of pain.
I had mine out recently, and my oral surgeon was really good at explaining everything.
I had heard that dentists have a knee-jerk reaction to pulling wisdom teeth out at an early age, and that this really isn’t necessary. Why not just wait till they cause a problem? Well, my surgeon said that the longer you wait, the more chances there are of complications. What kind of complications? He showed me on my X-ray these two long nerves that went along my jaw. One of my wisdom teeth had roots that almost touched this nerve. He said the older you get, the worse the chances are that the surgery will hurt one of these nerves, might cause you to lose some feeling in your chin or thereabouts. Bad stuff. He gave me some other possible complications too, but this one was the worst. Get them out as a teenager if you can, sooner the better.
I also asked, so what’s the deal, why are these teeth a problem anyway? Did human’s jaws get smaller? Nope, the real kicker is that we don’t have to chew nearly as much or as hard as our ancestors. All of our food is very easy to chew. Presumably the act of chewing on stuff used to grind down our teeth signficantly, thereby creating the room for wisdom teeth to come in. In fact, in many 3rd world countries where the food is not as “soft”, wisdom teeth aren’t as much of a problem.
I had an x-ray of my jaw done when I was a teenager. It turned out that my wisdom teeth were growing straight forward, not up. They weren’t causing any problems yet, but if I had just ignored them they would have started pushing into my molars and caused all sorts of problems. At that point would have been much more difficult to remove as well, so it was good I got them out when I did.
Get an x-ray done. Then they can tell you if you can safely just ignore them or if you’ll have to go under the knife. For most people they probably do grow in pretty normally, but if they aren’t going to play nice with the rest of your jaw you definately want to get them taken care of sooner rather than later.
I have all my wisdom teeth and they have never caused me a bit of trouble. Well, one of them got a cavity a couple decades ago, but nothing other than that. My husband and one of our daughters, OTOH, have NO wisdom teeth. Never did, never will. Our other daughter had to have all 4 removed when she was in her teens. Go figure.