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Can You Ever Keep Your Wisdom Teeth?

Can You Ever Keep Your Wisdom Teeth?

Although surgical procedures are performed every hour of every day in our country, each one comes with inherent risks and benefits to your health. No surgical procedure should be performed unless it is medically necessary, and each of the benefits and risks should be carefully weighed in order to protect the safety of each patient.

Having wisdom teeth surgically removed is no exception to this rule, since it is a decision that will require oral surgery and the use of anesthesia/sedation. For this reason, your oral surgeon will assess the health of the wisdom teeth on a case-by-case basis, as well as consider the health of each patient, and then recommend the most ideal treatment every time.

Using a detailed and advanced medical digital x-ray system, the position of the wisdom teeth, the surrounding bone, and even the adjacent sinus and nerve pathways can be visualized. Your personal medical history will be taken into account, and the oral surgeon will determine if the wisdom teeth are of any benefit to your health.  More often than not they are actually a detriment to your health.

If one or more of the wisdom teeth are found to be infected, impacted, decayed, related to a cyst, threatening the health of the adjacent teeth, or interfering with the function of your jaw joint, having those teeth removed would be in your best interest. Sometimes, the wisdom teeth are found to pose an immediate threat to your health, in which case they should be taken out right away. In other instances, the oral maxillofacial surgeon may be able to reasonably anticipate a future complication related to the wisdom teeth, in which case you should begin making plans to have them removed.

However, you should remember that oral surgery is never recommended without just cause. If the wisdom teeth are healthy or benign, you may be able to keep them for the rest of your life without any complications.

The choice to extract or keep the wisdom teeth should never be made without the professional input of an oral maxillofacial surgeon, even if the teeth are not causing pain. For more details, call ORA® Oral Surgery & Implant Studio in Downtown Chicago at 312-328-9000 to schedule a consultation today.

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