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Afraid of Wisdom Tooth Extraction?

Are you suffering from extreme pain in your hindmost molar? Do you feel you are growing a tooth now? What you are experiencing is the growth and inflammation of a wisdom tooth. A wisdom tooth is the hindmost molar that usually erupts during the age of 18 to 20 years. Often this molar eruption becomes a painful experience as it does not erupt easily. Sometimes, it erupts halfway causing inflammation, pain, and discomfort. In such cases, often emergency dental experts recommend an extraction. If you are afraid to get your wisdom tooth extracted, do not worry. Usually, patients become anxious when they think of the procedure. Hence, to lower your worries, let us have a closer look at what exactly happens in a wisdom tooth extraction.

Why You Need Extraction?

Extraction of a wisdom tooth is not the only option dentists rely on. Initially, they try to ease the problem by prescribing medicines. In certain cases where medicines don’t work, the dentist opts for an extraction. Some of these situations include:

  • Lack of Space:  On average, a human mouth has space for 28 full-grown teeth. These 28 teeth are already grown by the time you turn 18 years. After this age, when a wisdom tooth erupts, and your mouth cannot accommodate it, the push of a wisdom tooth can lead to pain and misalignment. In such cases, you need to get a wisdom tooth extraction done.
  • Extreme Pain: A wisdom tooth never erupts easily. Often it erupts partially. When your wisdom tooth erupts partially, it creates a space for food debris and bacteria to get trapped in. This eventually causes extreme toothache and an infection known as pericoronitis. The dentist has to extract your wisdom tooth to stop the infection from spreading.
  • Crooked Wisdom Tooth: Sometimes, the wisdom tooth erupts completely but in a sideways direction. This damages the nearby tooth and causes the adjacent tooth to shift. To avoid further damage to your adjacent tooth, a dentist will get the wisdom tooth extracted.
  • Cyst Formation: In rare cases, a sac around the wisdom tooth gets filled with fluid, and a cyst is formed. This cyst is capable of causing damage not only to the teeth but also the bone structure. To avoid such damage, extraction is necessary.

What is the Procedure?

When your wisdom tooth has fully erupted, the tooth extraction process becomes fairly simple as it can simply be pulled out using a removal tool. If your wisdom tooth has not completely erupted, then the dentist needs to make an incision through the gum and bone to extract the tooth. This method can also be easily conducted using sedation dentistry. The important part of post-extraction is the follow-up check at the dental clinic. Here the dentist will examine your complete healing process.

Now that you are aware of the procedure of wisdom tooth extraction, you should feel at ease as the process should not cause you much pain. If you plan to get your wisdom tooth extracted using sedation dentistry to avoid any pain, then reach out to our Edmonton emergency dental experts.