I am 35 yrs old and recently started having pain in my lower right wisdom tooth. It is fully impacted. The pain comes and goes within a couple of hours. This has happened 3 times in the last couple of months. My dentist referred me to an oral surgeon who recommends the tooth be extracted. He says the risk of parethesis is about 8-15%. Is that true and should I proceed with the surgery?
– Bridget from Texas
Bridget,
Your oral surgeon is warning you about possible paresthesia, which comes from damage to one of the nerves that go through the wisdom tooth area. There is the lingual nerve that goes to the side of the tongue, and the inferior alveolar nerve that goes to the lip. If this nerve is damaged, you could have anything from a transitory altered sensation in that nerve that lasts a few weeks to a permanent loss of sensation. Temporary damage is far more common. Permanent loss of sensation is a result of severing or totally crushing the nerve, which happens very infrequently.
You need to know that when a dentist gives you warnings about the risks from a procedure, the object they have in mind is to protect themselves against lawsuits. So there is a tendency, especially among specialists such as oral surgeons, to overstate the risks. Without an x-ray of your tooth, I couldn’t tell you if the percentage they gave you is right or wrong. It is high if there are no complicating factors in your surgery.
But you have to have the tooth out. The risk of doing nothing is far greater. The tooth could easily be infected, and a wisdom tooth infection can become life-threatening. And the longer you put this off, the more difficult the surgery will become and the greater the risks of complications.
And I would strongly recommend having ALL of your wisdom teeth out at this time. If you’re having trouble with one wisdom tooth, you will very possibly have trouble with the corresponding one on the other side soon. And the uppers are simpler to remove. The healing time and discomfort are only a little greater in having four wisdom teeth out as opposed to having one. A dentist who really cares about his or her patient will recommend that.
And for others reading this posting, this is an excellent illustration about the wisdom of having your wisdom teeth extracted when you are 25 or younger, if they are impacted. At that age, your bone is quite pliable and the risks of complications are very low. Having wisdom teeth removed at, say, age 20, has about 1/4 the risk of difficulty as having them out when you’re 35. Dentists who would advise otherwise are almost never dentists who have first-hand experience taking out impacted wisdom teeth.
Dr. Hall
Read more about tooth extractions.
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About David A. Hall
Dr. David A. Hall was one of the first 40 accredited cosmetic dentists in the world. He practiced cosmetic dentistry in Iowa, and in 1990 earned his accreditation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is now president of Infinity Dental Web, a company in Mesa, Arizona that does advanced internet marketing for dentists.
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