Wisdom Teeth Removal

Wisdom Tooth Removal

One day you go to the dentist and your dentist says you need to see an oral surgeon to get your wisdom teeth removed. Impacted wisdom teeth can ruin other teeth, cause gum disease and lead to other health issues. Put it off as long as you like, but it's better to get this type of thing done before it's an emergency situation where other teeth need root canals in addition to the wisdom teeth removal.

Deciding to not have the wisdom tooth removal done would be like your auto mechanic pointing to your back two tires and showing you giant bulges in them and deciding to ignore the problem.

You can put off getting the back two tires replaced and risk a major accident or blowout where you have to change tires on a highway or on your way to work or a date and pay more for towing or worse, risk getting hit while changing your tire.

Wouldn't it be better to simply replace the tires when you have full control over the cost, mechanic selectiono, and scheduling when your car would be out of commission?

Think of how much more confident you'd be after simply replacing the tires. It's much the same when considering wisdom tooth removal. Wouldn't it be a bummer to have extreme pain sneak up on you while you are on a vacation, during a critical time in your career, or after losing dental coverage?

Imagine being out to sea on a cruise ship and out of the blue you have a massive pain hit you so hard that it puts you down for the rest of the trip. Then imagine that you could have prevented it by simply taking care of the wisdom teeth extraction now.

Your best option is to go ahead with consulting an oral surgeon or maxilliofacial surgeon to learn your options. Save money by bringing the xray from your dentist. Most insurance only covers one of these types of x-rays per year. Simply taking the dentist x-rays with you that indicated to your primary dental provider that you need your wisdom teeth extracted will save you $150-$300.

In your wisdom teeth removal consult, the surgeon should educate you on why you need it done and should be able to answer any questions you may have afterwards. This is a good time to disclose any health conditions to the oral surgeon so that she can set you up for success. Heart murmer, diabetes, allergies, alcoholism, high blood pressure, and any other physical condition issues you are even curious about impacting wisdom teeth removal surgery should be discussed.

If you are concerned about bacteria getting into your heart valves, which is an especially critical issue for those who have heart murmers, or if you just want to be safe, ask your oral surgeon about getting antibiotics to take before the surgery. Usually this type of protective antibiotic loading includes 4 pills an hour before the operation.

The oral surgeon should give you a prescription for pain medicine (vicodin,hydrocodone,etc) and antibiotics during this consultation. Go and get your prescription filled well in advance of the wisdom tooth removal surgery so that you don't need to stress about it on the day of your surgery.

care after wisdom teeth removal

After the oral surgeon extracts your wisdom tooth (or, worse, wisdom teeth), proper aftercare is vital if you want to avoid a dry socket wisdom tooth issue and recover quickly. If you don’t take good care of your mouth, you risk wisdom tooth dry sockets, infections, and other painful problems.