Wisdom Teeth Removal in Edmonton

At Uptown Dental Centre, when it comes to evaluating the pros and cons of removing a patient’s wisdom teeth our professional staff always takes into consideration the individual patient’s current state of health, focusing on the clinical condition of the wisdom teeth and their surrounding bone and gum tissues and the results of current x-rays.  In other words, the decision to remove wisdom teeth is carefully considered with the individual patient (or their parents, in the case of a minor) before any recommendation is made.

The Mysterious Third Molars

Most of us, not all, have four teeth at the very back of our jaw called the third molars or wisdom teeth.  They can start to erupt or shift in our jaw anywhere between the age of 16 and our mid-twenties.  That age range varies by family, but, for the most part, if we have them, and if they erupt or cause changes in our mouth, it would happen somewhere in that age range.  For some, the wisdom teeth never erupt, some of us will have one or two erupt without issue, and some other patients may have none erupt but rather shift (these are called impacted wisdom teeth) in their jaw and cause spacing issues with the other molars.  If some or all of the wisdom teeth erupt and they are poorly spaced with the existing molars, the crowding can lead to gum disease, accumulation of plaque, or even tooth decay.  These conditions can affect healthy teeth around the wisdom teeth by compromising the integrity of the adjacent adult second molars.