Oral Surgery

Wisdom teeth need to be removed when their eruption threatens the alignment of the rest of the smile. Sometimes they erupt at an angle that will cause them to shift the surrounding teeth. In other cases, they might cause overcrowding. Your wisdom teeth might also be impacted, meaning they don’t erupt from the gums, or they may only partially erupt. This can cause pain and swelling or even infection. In the worst cases, impacted wisdom teeth can create cysts or tumors, causing permanent damage to the jaw.

Even if your wisdom teeth fully erupt at a normal angle, because they are so far back in the smile, they are difficult to clean properly and are prone to decay. That’s why we usually recommend patients have their wisdom teeth removed sooner rather than later, because the longer the wisdom teeth are left in the smile, the more likely they are to cause problems down the road.