At All Pro Dental clinic in Revere, we provide dental extraction services including wisdom tooth removal. Generally, most wisdom tooth removals happen around the time someone is 18 or in their early 20s. It is likely that your teenager may have a few questions about wisdom tooth extraction before their procedure.
The first question we always hear from parents and kids is whether or not they need to have their wisdom teeth pulled. In fact, some kids are born without wisdom teeth. And other children end up not having to have theirs pulled at all, or only need some pulled. The reason a wisdom tooth would need to be extracted is if it is impacted. An impacted wisdom tooth can get infected and cause worse dental problems as the infection spreads. The best way to know if you need your teeth pulled is to visit a dentist who can perform x-rays.
There are a variety of symptoms that could indicate that wisdom tooth is impacted. They include red swollen gums, jaw pain, bleeding gums, swelling around the jaw, difficulty chewing/biting, and discomfort in the area of the wisdom teeth. However, even with or without these symptoms the best way to know if a child has impacted teeth is to get x-rays from a dentist.
During an extraction, your dentist will likely go through a few steps. The first stage of the procedure is anesthetics. In some cases, nitrous oxide or laughing gas is used to help a patient feel more comfortable. An injectable local anesthetic will be placed in the gumline that will fully numb the mouth and face. Some dentists will also provide sedative anesthetic through an IV. This anesthetic will suppress consciousness during the procedure and limit memory. Once you are under the anesthetic, the dentist will make incisions in the gum line, remove the teeth, and stitch up the gumline. You will likely need to return to have stitches removed.
For the first few hours after the surgery, the patient will likely still be under the effects of any anesthetics. Their face may still be numb and they may exhibit a lack of awareness of their surroundings. Your dentist will likely provide pain medication, medical gauze, and instructions. For the next few days, you will likely not be able to eat solid foods and will need to rinse out your mouth after eating to avoid infection. You can rinse out your mouth with lightly salted warm water. Medical gauze can be used to handle any bleeding after the procedure.
Wisdom tooth recovery ranges from patient to patient and can take up to 2 weeks to get back to normal. During that time your symptoms will get progressively less severe as inflammation/swelling goes down and you feel less pain. It is not uncommon to have surgical stitches removed 10 days to 2 weeks after the procedure.
If you have more questions about wisdom tooth removal, please contact our team. We would be happy to answer them and any other questions you have about our dental services.
Monday: 10:30am – 6:30pm
Tuesday: 10:30am – 6:30pm
Wednesday: 10:30am – 6:30pm
Thursday: 10:30am – 6:30pm
Friday: 10:30am – 6:30pm
Sat-Sun: Closed
