If it bothers you, get them out. I tried to deal with mine for a long long time. Food would get stuck and it was hard to keep clean. They would get infected, etc. It was horrible. I got mine taken out on a Friday and was able to get back to work on Monday.
I've probably only gone to the dentist/doctor once or twice my entire life because 99% of my issues have resolved themselves. Never had any dental problems besides the occasional canker sore. Dang that's crazy and scary at the same time. Is it still in there? Me too, eventually.
That's what I'm dealing with (except for the part about being in your 40's. I'm not quite there yet). I've had a small cavity on one for over a year. The dentist has said it hasn't grown but that I should have all 4 removed even though they aren't bothering me at all.
Late to the party...was out of town and just returned. Based on the picture, where you have tissue growing over the back part of the wisdom tooth, seems like you had something called Pericoronitis. It's basically an inflammation and infection of the tissue. What causes it? Basically, you have this "flap" of tissue that can trap food, bacteria, etc... Very hard to keep clean. This can cause an infection...and eventually, your body fights it (either naturally or with antibiotics) and it goes away. However, it will almost certainly reappear. Chances are that your wisdom tooth wont come out fully, so that flap will continue to be there and cause trapping of bacteria again, leading to another infection. I really wouldnt even think about keeping the tooth as it can really do no good for you other than cause future problems. Plus, if it's coming in at an angle, it can cause damage to the root of your molar in front. Get the tooth pulled.
The overwhelming majority of dentists wont be the ones removing the wisdom teeth, unless it's pretty basic/routine. In other words, there is no financial incentive for the dentist to recommend the removal of those wisdom teeth. If you have impacted wisdom teeth, they should absolutely be removed. If you have partially impacted teeth, same thing. If you have wisdom teeth that have grown in perfectly straight and have no decay on them...keep them. If you have wisdom teeth that have grown in perfectly straight and have any sign of decay, remove them if all your other teeth are in working condition. In other words, a very small percentage of the population fits the description of having their wisdom teeth come in nicely with no signs of decay. All others should have their wisdom teeth removed. And it's really for the benefit of the patient. Here is an example I see almost on a daily basis: Patient comes in, wisdom teeth have erupted, but there is decay present, lets say, on the upper right wisdom tooth. All other teeth look good. If we are talking about a money scheme, which is financially better for the patient? Paying $200-$250 for the extraction...or paying $100-$150 for the filling? Keep in mind, that filling will probably need to be replaced every 5-7 years. Also, keep in mind that the wisdom teeth will have a higher incidence of decay, just because of it's positioning in the mouth and it's relative difficulty to keep clean. Is it really worth it for the patient to pay $150 dollars every 5 years on a tooth that they dont really need? Now, if the patient chooses to extract the tooth, I always recommend for the opposing tooth to be extracted as well. Why? Because if a tooth doesnt have an opposing tooth, it serves zero purpose. Plus, if there is no opposing tooth, it will start growing out, which can/will cause some issues. Less than 5% of the population have wisdom teeth that they should keep. Everyone else will run into issues with their wisdom teeth at one point or another. EDIT By the way, a filling on a wisdom tooth (if keeping the tooth is preferred to extracting) will eventually get bigger and bigger....getting to a point where a crown will eventually be needed. From a financial perspective, I'd definitely prefer to do $600 worth of fillings on a wisdom tooth over a number of years, then finally take $1000 to put a crown on that tooth...over getting paid a one time fee of $200 to have it removed immediately. If money was the motivation, I'd never recommend to have the wisdom tooth removed because there is a lot more financial incentive to have a patient keep the wisdom tooth. I'd be making probably $20,000 more per year if I never recommended wisdom teeth to be extracted.
Only if I was from Houston. Maybe I'll come down to Houston sometime and ask rezdawg for a clutchfan discount. You cool with that rez? I'll probably be getting it soon then.... Eventually...
I got put under, had my wisdom teeth removed, went home, threw up blood, and went to sleep. The next night, I had Whataburger for dinner. It's not as bad as some of these dudes make it seem. Just get it done.
I have mine as there have been no problems. Had my wife's removed because she had problems. It was expensive. They surgically removed them.
If only I was from Houston. Think the drive down there plus shelter would equal the discount. Thanks for the offer though, cool of you to discount rockets fans. How do they decide whether to remove it surgically or yanking it. Can I also ask for no anesthetics? I want to feel the pain of them yanking it out. I'm just kidding, I'm sensitive to pain.
A wisdom tooth, specially on the top, that is fully grown out, can be taken out as a regular extraction. Bottom tooth that is fully grown out can sometimes be taken out as a regular extraction, but most of the time, it's surgical (bone on the lower jaw is much more dense, so the extractions arent always "simple"). Any wisdom tooth that is not fully grown out will be taken out surgically...and there are different elements to that depending on how much of the tooth is still imbedded in bone or in tissue.
I had mine removed when I was 20. Had to because my wisdom teeth were growing sideways on the way out, so if I had left them another 10-15 years, they would've ruined my back teeth. It was pretty bad though because the the teeth hadn't come out yet, so the dentist had to cut open the gums and take them out. Glad I did while I was still on insurance though.
Luckily I had mine removed when my work had insurance. I could've probably kept 2 and cross my fingers the other two wouldn't impact the other teeth somehow, but since it was gonna be a pain in the ass recovering, might as well rip all 4 out. RR14, you could volunteer to be some test subject and let some students/researcher rip it out for you through some experimental trial. You're pretty much signing away risk/litigation to do it though, but people sign up to save some $$$$ and are, for the most part, intact and normal. This also might be something Obama that can rain presents on you with...you or someone can research that.
