A wisdom tooth is any of the third molars, including both the upper third molar and the lower third molar. People usually get their wisdom teeth sometime between the ages of 17 and 25. Having four wisdom teeth is considered the norm, but it is possible to have more (called supernumerary teeth) or less (called hypodontia). Most commonly, wisdom teeth will affect other teeth as they come in. When a wisdom tooth comes in at a bad angle, causing pain or damage to the rest of your teeth, it is known as being impacted or “impaction”. When this occurs, they are usually removed through a process called “extraction”. Your local Utah dentist can usually extract a wisdom tooth with little to no preparation.
Before you go to your dentist, you should know that there are four distinct categories of impacted wisdom teeth. The most common type in Utah is the one where the tooth points forward, also known as Mesioangular (44%). The second most common type of impacted wisdom tooth in Utah is Vertical impaction (38%); this is where the tooth doesn’t fully come through the gum line. Distoangular impaction (6%) is fairly rare, and means the wisdom tooth points towards the rear of the mouth. The rarest type of impacted wisdom tooth in Utah is Horizontal impaction (3%), where the tooth is at a right angle and is growing into the root of the second molar.
Your dentist can diagnose to see if you have another type of wisdom tooth impaction, once known as a bony impaction. A bony impaction is where your wisdom teeth are completely encased within the jawbone. On the other hand, when your wisdom teeth have erupted from the jawbone but haven’t penetrated the gumline, it is called a soft tissue impaction, or Vertical impaction. The gum will form a soft tissue lid around the tooth called an operculum. Wisdom teeth covered by an operculum can be difficult to clean using methods outside of special dental tools.
Because an operculum makes cleaning a wisdom tooth difficult with conventional means, bacteria and debris can gather there at an alarming rate. This may cause pericoronitis, an infection problem common in Utah with young adults with partial impactions. A swelling and redness in the gum around the wisdom tooth are common symptons of pericoronitis; so are difficulty opening the mouth, bad odors or tastes in the mouth, pain in the region that may run up the jaw or down the neck. Untreated, the infection can progress to more sever infections. Recommended treatment is the extraction of the wisdom tooth, and you can have your wisdom teeth removed quite easily in Utah.
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