Impacted Wisdom Teeth Extraction: What to Expect

Adults are expected to have 32 teeth, but some people have as few as 28. Those final four teeth that come in are wisdom teeth, and around 25% of people never develop one or more of these teeth at all. Often, however, a missing wisdom tooth is actually there, just stuck up above your gumline.

At Lancaster Dental Care Associates in Lancaster, California, cosmetic and family dentist Kamran Saidara, DDS, and his team (which includes oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Michael Issakharian) routinely perform tooth extractions when needed, including oral surgery when required for the extraction of impacted wisdom teeth.

Wisdom teeth 101

Your wisdom teeth are the last teeth that come in as you reach adulthood; usually between the ages of 17 and 21. If a wisdom tooth doesn’t have enough room in the jawbone to root and then erupt through the gum, it can get impacted. This typically means you need a complex extraction. 

While most of your teeth can be extracted fairly easily, impacted wisdom teeth can be more difficult to remove. Hidden wisdom teeth are often sitting diagonally or even fully horizontally above the gumline, and may be grinding away at adjacent molars. Most people find out about hidden wisdom teeth because of tooth or jaw pain at the back of their mouth.

If you had simple “bitewing” X-rays as a teen and no wisdom teeth were visible, your dentist might not have seen your wisdom teeth. If you had a panoramic X-ray (one that captures a 360-view around your head, including large sections of the upper and lower jaw), hidden wisdom teeth were more likely to have been spotted.

Extracting impacted wisdom teeth 

Impacted wisdom teeth can’t typically be pulled straight out. They’re either up behind your jawbone, sideways above the gum, jammed into other teeth, or even migrated into your sinus area. These teeth usually require an oral surgeon to perform a complex extraction without causing damage to surrounding tissues.

What to expect

We start with a fresh set of X-rays to get a complete view of the lower half of your head. This lets us know which wisdom teeth are there, where they’re positioned, and whether or not they’re severely impacted. Typical impacted wisdom tooth symptoms include pain, swelling on the side of the face, and a bad taste in your mouth.

Your oral surgeon makes a detailed plan to remove your impacted wisdom tooth (or teeth) with minimal trauma. If a wisdom tooth has burrowed into an adjacent molar, we may need to remove both the impacted wisdom tooth and the molar, depending on the level of damage and whether we can repair it.

After your surgery

We discuss your anesthetic needs before scheduling your surgical extraction. You’ll need someone to drive you home after you have your extraction, and you’ll have to eat soft foods and take antibiotics for a few days up to a week. We also supply a prescription for pain medication as needed.

Once your gums have healed from having your extraction, your pain should be completely gone. 

To learn more about impacted wisdom teeth or to schedule an evaluation, call 661-215-8130 or request an appointment online today at Lancaster Dental Care Associates.