Should I have my wisdom tooth restored or extracted?

Dr. Hall,
I was wondering if you could help me. I am a 50 year old woman whose dentist wants to take out her wisdom tooth (not impacted) but they say has a big cavity. Do you recommend  extraction for my age group? Is there any other treatment for this?

It doesnt give me any problems (no pain).

Thank you for your time!
Trisha from Florida

Trisha,
Ordinarily, you want to save a tooth if possible. But if this wisdom tooth has a large cavity in it, extraction may be the best thing, because wisdom teeth are sometimes very difficult to restore well. There is no age limit on extractions.

If you wait until the tooth hurts, the extraction could become very difficult because the tooth will crumble when they try to take it out. It would not be a pretty picture. And if a wisdom tooth isn’t impacted, you don’t have all of the complications that I list on the website for extractions of impacted wisdom teeth.

There has to be a certain amount of trust between a dental patient and a dentist. 90% of what the dentist does will be for things that you can’t tell are wrong. As dentists we try to get to cavities and other problems before they start hurting. Otherwise we’d be doing root canal treatments and crowns on every tooth.

If the tooth has a large cavity, then your choices are either extraction on the one hand or restoring the tooth on the other. The restoration could be a large filling or a crown, possibly including root canal treatment, depending on how large the decay is. But sometimes on wisdom teeth there are special complications in trying to restore them, because access is limited that far back in the mouth. A crown is a lot of money to spend if the result is questionable and you end up needing to replace the crown every two or three years, say. Hopefully you can trust the recommendations of your dentist.

Dr. Hall