{"id":55866,"date":"2025-09-29T16:44:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/?p=55866"},"modified":"2025-09-29T16:44:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:44:32","slug":"wisdom-tooth-rotted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisdom tooth rotted. Should I be worried?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wisdom tooth rotted and broke off at gum line. Looks like it&#8217;s all gone. I hit it with a light and didn&#8217;t see anything. Should I be worried?<br \/>\n&#8211; Tristan from Port Charlotte, FL<\/p>\n<p>(See Dr. Hall&#8217;s answer below.)<\/p>\n<div class=\"responsive-post-content\">\n<div class=\"post-left-column\">\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(d, s, id) {\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">We thank our advertisers who help fund this site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Square for mns blog - 2020 --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4419877247826466\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"6484616093\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-right-column\">\n<p>Tristan,<br \/>\nI think a lot of dentists would tell you that you should go in to a dentist and have it checked to be sure. But I&#8217;ll be honest with you, at this point you&#8217;re probably completely okay. And, if you&#8217;re not, the tooth will soon be totally gone. Once the crown of a tooth has broken off, the rest of the tooth will decay. There is minimal risk of infection getting into the bone at that point because the tooth is completely open. And with no enamel left, the decay will go quickly.<\/p>\n<p>But I will add that it is a risky proposition to let a decaying tooth get that bad. You were lucky that you didn&#8217;t get a nasty infection earlier. Count your blessings. And I&#8217;m reading between the lines and figuring that it&#8217;s been a long time since you&#8217;ve been to a dentist. There are undoubtedly other teeth that are on their way to becoming infected. It&#8217;s so much simpler fixing a small cavity than a big one&mdash;I would get a checkup.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Dr. Hall<\/p>\n<p>Do you have a comment or anything else to add? We&#8217;d love to hear from you. Enter your comment below. Or click here to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/askdr.htm\">ask Dr. Hall a question.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: currentColor; width: 450px; height: 80px; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mynewsmile.com&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wisdom tooth rotted and broke off at gum line. Looks like it&#8217;s all gone. I hit it with a light and didn&#8217;t see anything. Should I be worried? &#8211; Tristan from Port Charlotte, FL (See Dr. Hall&#8217;s answer below.) We thank our advertisers who help fund this site. Tristan, I think a lot of dentists [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[117,1501],"class_list":["post-55866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-infected-tooth","tag-infected-wisdom-tooth","tag-rotted-tooth","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wisdom tooth rotted. Should I be worried? - Cosmetic Dentistry Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wisdom tooth rotted. Should I be worried? - Cosmetic Dentistry Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wisdom tooth rotted and broke off at gum line. Looks like it&#8217;s all gone. I hit it with a light and didn&#8217;t see anything. Should I be worried? &#8211; Tristan from Port Charlotte, FL (See Dr. Hall&#8217;s answer below.) We thank our advertisers who help fund this site. Tristan, I think a lot of dentists [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cosmetic Dentistry Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-29T23:44:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David A. Hall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David A. Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wisdom tooth rotted. Should I be worried? - Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wisdom tooth rotted. Should I be worried? - Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","og_description":"Wisdom tooth rotted and broke off at gum line. Looks like it&#8217;s all gone. I hit it with a light and didn&#8217;t see anything. Should I be worried? &#8211; Tristan from Port Charlotte, FL (See Dr. Hall&#8217;s answer below.) We thank our advertisers who help fund this site. Tristan, I think a lot of dentists [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/","og_site_name":"Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","article_published_time":"2025-09-29T23:44:32+00:00","author":"David A. Hall","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David A. Hall","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/"},"author":{"name":"David A. Hall","@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/60d45e438b269f3691398d223c943d75"},"headline":"Wisdom tooth rotted. Should I be worried?","datePublished":"2025-09-29T23:44:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/"},"wordCount":276,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["infected wisdom tooth","rotted tooth"],"articleSection":["Infected teeth"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/","name":"Wisdom tooth rotted. Should I be worried? - Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-09-29T23:44:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/60d45e438b269f3691398d223c943d75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wisdom-tooth-rotted\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wisdom tooth rotted. Should I be worried?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/","name":"Cosmetic Dentistry Blog","description":"Cosmetic and General Dentistry Questions Answered","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/60d45e438b269f3691398d223c943d75","name":"David A. Hall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4615c869fad982a8b037801e6bd5181b104e67228b9c0525d2ad490de1e7b78e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4615c869fad982a8b037801e6bd5181b104e67228b9c0525d2ad490de1e7b78e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4615c869fad982a8b037801e6bd5181b104e67228b9c0525d2ad490de1e7b78e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"David A. Hall"},"description":"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.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.infinitydentalweb.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55866"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55868,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55866\/revisions\/55868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mynewsmile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}