Possible Complications Of Compacted Wisdom Teeth

You don't have to remove your wisdom teeth, as long as they are healthy, but you can prevent a lot of complications by removing them. Wisdom teeth usually cause a lot of problems to people over the age of 25. Most of these complications arise when a wisdom tooth becomes impacted (stuck within the jawbone). Some of these complications include:

Cysts

In a few cases, the impacted wisdom tooth develops a fluid-filled sac within the jawbone. This is what is known as a cyst, and it changes the structure of the surrounding tissues such as jawbone, teeth, and nerves. In extreme cases, a cyst might even transform into a benign tumor (abnormal mass of tissue).

With time, the damage can spread to surrounding teeth, bone and other structures of your body. The longer you stay with an impacted tooth, the higher the chances of it developing a cyst or tumor. This is bad because a cyst or tumor is more difficult to deal with than an impacted tooth.

Decay

Wisdom teeth don't have a lot of room for their eruption. In fact, this is why most of them get impacted. Another unfortunate consequence of this constrained space is that the teeth are very difficult to clean. As you can imagine, it is difficult not only to reach the teeth at the back of the mouth, but also to brush them efficiently, especially the spaces between the wisdom tooth and the next tooth. In the end, bits of food and bacteria may remain on the teeth, which is why wisdom teeth are prone to decay.

Damage to Adjacent Teeth

An impacted wisdom tooth is a danger not only to itself, but also to other teeth. For example, if a wisdom tooth starts coming up at an awkward angle, its path may be blocked by an existing tooth. When this happens, it starts pushing against this tooth, which may also start pushing against the next in line. In the end, the impacted wisdom tooth puts a lot of surrounding tooth in danger and may throw them out of line. Such damage may need to be corrected by orthodontics.

Most people prevent these problems by removing their wisdom teeth as soon as they appear. However, you may still find some relief by removing your compacted teeth irrespective of the stage of the damage. It is clear that the longer you stay with the compacted teeth, the greater the complications will be. Talk to experts like Lindsey Metcalf M DDS & Robert Dalton B DDS for more information.


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