THE CURSE OF THE WISDOM TOOTH

I know that you are thinking, how could a tooth that causes as much dental disease and dental anxiety ever by named wisdom. This tooth that needs to be renamed. A name like cursed tooth or Satan tooth or sometimes it feels as if is going to kill you.

Most wisdom teeth need to be pulled. I wish that it wasn't so, but it is. Today's dentistry is dedicated toward saving as many teeth for the patient that is possible. Many technological advances have made it possible to save more and more teeth. Dentists the world over have spent millions of dollars and millions of hours to learn these advanced techniques. Now we just come out and say, there are four of your molars that for no other reason besides that they are there, that are going to be pulled.

It isn't that God just chose to play some dastardly trick on humanity. Thousands of years ago we actually used them due to the wearing down of the other teeth from eating such rough, tough food. With the refined foods that we eat now, we don't wear our other teeth off and consequently our wisdom teeth stay crammed in the bone in the back of our mouths. So we have to pull them.

The problem is that due to the bad publicity that wisdom extractions have gained, everyone avoids it like the plague. Just to mention having to have one extracted produces visions of Hitler look-a like, complete with swastika and SS uniforms, coming at with a chainsaw and crowbar.

The truth is that most wisdom teeth extractions are just as easy as any other tooth. The reason that they have such a terrible reputation is that everyone hears about the difficult ones and no one tells about the easy ones. It isn't news if it is pulled easily.

Most wisdom teeth can be removed with little or no surgery. If there there is surgery required then proper, effective pain medication is available that brings comfort whenever needed. There are analgesics, relaxants and sedatives to make the extraction appointment easy.

Delaying the extraction of a wisdom tooth is the biggest mistake that is made. When there is an irritation or inflammation in the area behind the last tooth in your mouth, that wisdom tooth is calling out to you. He is saying, "you had better pull me! If you don't soon, I am going to blow up on you and cause you more trouble than any hemorrhoid you have ever had."

If there is a delay, this beast of a tooth will swell your face up and cause enough pain to kill a regiment of marines. At this point you have to have relief even if it were to mean cutting your head off.

The sensible choice would be to treat the wisdom tooth before it gets to that stage. First you have to realize that most all of us have wisdom teeth. So go to your dentist and ask him to examine you to see if you need to have the wisdom teeth extracted or not.

Sometimes the wisdom teeth don't need to be pulled so don' assume anything before the examination. Even if you decide to delay any treatment, it is always good to know the condition of these teeth.

If you want to be asleep when you have the wisdom teeth pulled, you may have to go to an oral surgeon. Your general dentist can refer to one easily.

Please don't delay. In this case, nothing good comes from procrastination.

Larry W. Cox DMD