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Can we discuss wisdom teeth removal? (Poll)


Pegasus
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Wisdom Teeth Experience  

204 members have voted

  1. 1. The wisdom teeth experiences for you and your immediately family include:

    • Removed early (by age 25) before they caused any problems
      105
    • Removed early (by age 25) after they started causing problems
      52
    • Removed later (25+) before problems
      12
    • Removed later (25+) after problems
      48
    • Not removed (not impacted)
      40
    • Not removed (impacted)
      13
    • Naturally missing those teeth
      16


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Mine grew in and stayed in until they became cavity ridden much later in my life (lots of morning sickness rotted my teeth).  They just pulled them with Novocaine.  I drove there and back.  They did them over a period of years, as it made sense.  I didn't have braces.  There was room for them to grow in.  They crowded my lower teeth a bit, but nobody was worried about that.

My husband had a small jaw.  He had teeth removed and braces as a child.  Later, he had impacted wisdom teeth that were removed in college.  It wasn't an easy experience.

One of our children inherited my roomy jaw, so no braces, but his wisdom teeth were impacted.  He had them out in college.  It wasn't a big deal.  Local anesthetic and a quick recovery.  The other two had teeth removed and braces.  Oldest had his removed in his late teens.  It is the worst thing I have ever lived through (on a personal scale).  Youngest has impacted wisdom teeth and has been told he needs to have them removed, but has been told it is ok to wait for a bit before he does it.  (He is in college.)

 

So - varying experiences.  I saw the xrays of the children's teeth and can see why they wanted to remove them.  They were all under their molars by quite a bit.  Some were sideways.

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Dentists wanted to remove mine as a teen/young adult.  They said they were impacted and showed me X rays that seemed to show they didn't have room to come in (they were in kind of sideways).  I didn't have them removed and guess what?  They came in just fine. I found out later that it's normal for them to be sideways in your jaw before they erupt and it doesn't mean there is not room.

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There was never any question of whether mine would come in; my 12 year molars never really had enough room. I had the three I had removed at 19 before they caused symptoms. Dh had plenty of room and all four wisdom teeth came in. When he was about 22 all four got cavities and he had them removed.

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I'm LDS and served a church mission for 18 months. It's pretty standard for most prospective missionaries to get their wisdom teeth out beforehand. The idea is that if you're called to serve in another (less-developed) country it's better to just have them out than risk having problems while away from home.

Edited by DesertBlossom
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I have had 3 out of 4 removed after each of them went really wrong. They all just popped/cracked. I got really upset at the last one because it was about a month after the second and I had been trying so hard and it just cracked in half while I was eating dinner one day. I just have very bad teeth/bad dental luck. I was over 25 with all of them. 

Edited by SporkUK
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My first one came in while pregnant with my oldest. We didn't have insurance at the time, so when I had a checkup a few years later or so, on the morning of the checkup I noticed it was loose while driving to the appointment. Turned out it was half broken. Had it pulled that day instead of having a checkup. Hm, actually, I think I might have been 26 by then so I'll need to go change my vote, as it was after my youngest was born (my 2nd wisdom tooth started coming in while pregnant with my youngest and it was on the same side, so it was pulled at the same time).

 

The third wisdom tooth came in a year or so ago after the molar in front of it had been pulled due to a cavity that needed either a root canal or be pulled (opted for it to be pulled). Since food kept getting trapped behind it with it being really hard to clean (it was coming in in a really bad angle - the dentist pulling it said it'd be "interesting"), and my history with wisdom tooth #1 and the molar right in front of wisdom tooth #3, I decided to have it pulled earlier this fall before the inevitable problems would've happened (and while we have money and dental insurance and relatively little stress).

 

Hoping to never see wisdom tooth #4, but the dentist said it's possible it might appear at some point. There really isn't any space for it though, so if it were to appear it'd have to be pulled.

 

ETA: okay, changed my vote. I still think having it removed about 3-4 years after it coming in should count as 'early'. I can't help it that my first one appeared when I was 22-23yo. Wisdom teeth 2 & 3 were removed less than a year after erupting, at 26 and 31.

Edited by luuknam
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They just pulled them with Novocaine.  I drove there and back.

 

This. Wisdom tooth 1 was fairly easy, number 2 was a little harder because it was still partially impacted, the regular molar was trivial, and wisdom tooth 3 took a *lot* of pulling and wiggling and all that kind of stuff (it made about a 300 degree angle with the root - it was crazy - and the dentist complimented my jaw bone strength/health), but all just a local injection in the gums and drive there & back, take ibuprofen if needed at home.

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