If you have yet to experience problems with your wisdom teeth, you likely don’t give this third set of molars much thought. If, on the other hand, you’re dealing with wisdom teeth issues, you’ve probably found that these later-in-life teeth are hard to ignore.
Once wisdom teeth start to emerge they can lead to all kinds of oral health issues and inconveniences. In most cases, the solution is prompt and thorough wisdom tooth extraction. Today our Glendale dentists are walking you through the general process for this treatment:
Assessment
The first thing our team will do is take a look at your smile in order to assess the current state of your smile. We’ll use X-rays to determine where and how your wisdom teeth are positioned. This information is vital for putting together your treatment plan.
Removal
If your wisdom teeth have already started to emerge, and they have actually broken through the bite plane of your gum tissue, we may be able to remove your wisdom tooth by pulling it, as we would pull a regular tooth. In many cases, however, wisdom teeth are impacted, which means that they are stuck in the patient’s jaw tissue. If you have impacted wisdom teeth, our dentist will go into your jaw tissue and surgically extract the tooth.
Post-treatment
Our dental team will give you specific instructions on how to care for your smile post-treatment, but in general you will just need to keep the extraction site clean so that it heals well. For the first couple of days after extraction you will need to be especially gentle as you clean—and refrain from using straws—so that you do not accidently dislodge the clot at the extraction site.
Our Glendale wisdom tooth dentists are happy to provide you with any additional information that you may need about this important treatment—give us a call to get started!