Posted by 
Contrary to their name, wisdom teeth don’t actually make you any wiser. Most people have 8 molars, two on each side of the mouth both on the top and bottom rows. Wisdom teeth usually start to appear as the third set of molars between the ages of 17 and 24. My Stockton dentist removed mine when I was 19.
The reason that wisdom teeth receive so much attention is most jaws are not able to accommodate this third set of molars. This typically means one of two things: either you do nothing and this third set of molars begins to move your teeth every which way or you go to an oral surgeon and have them removed. This second option is full of pain and can have some short term painful side effects.
Most oral surgeons and dentist recommend the extraction of this third set of molars as a precaution against potential future problems. Such problems include impacted wisdom teeth or infections caused by food particles being caught behind the teeth in areas that are hard to brush and floss. These infections can be felt locally in the jaw or gum of the infected area and in some cases the person with the infection can actually taste or smell it.
If you decide to take your dentist’s advice and have your wisdom teeth removed you should be careful eating for the next couple of weeks as sometimes there are small complications ranging from swelling, never injury all the way to dry sockets.
Although all of these complications are unpleasant, the dry sockets are downright miserable. Dry sockets occur when the blood clots from the extracted tooth are dislodged and fall out permanently or in some cases fail to form. Sometimes this is the patients fault when they fail to listen to the advice given to them by the dentist. Other times they have avoided doing everything the dentist has said to avoid and it still happens. You are never guaranteed a perfect extraction but my dentist has always had a great reputation for these procedures. If you would like to look into his practice further you can find more information at www.yourstocktondentist.com
