Hi, Dr Richard here from Dental House Group.

I just saw a new patient Maria from Gisborne yesterday. She came to us because she has an impacted wisdom tooth, and it was causing her quite a lot of discomfort. When we went through her options, asked me, Doc, what happens if we just leave it?

I thought that’s a great question, so I decided to make a quick video sharing with you what I shared with her, just in case you also experience the same problem.

• Wisdom teeth are your third molar teeth and usually come through in your late teens or early twenties but can cause problems at any time in your life. Usually, people have four wisdom teeth but some are lucky and one or more don’t develop.
• When wisdom teeth do not have room to come through or come through at the wrong angle they become impacted. An impacted wisdom tooth pushes on the gum, bone or the tooth next door, and this can cause pain and sometimes infection.
• Wisdom teeth that come out towards the cheek side can cause ulcers on the cheek and problems biting or chewing your food. Wisdom teeth that are tilted forward or backwards get stuck on the tooth in front or the jaw bone behind and can’t fully erupt.

This makes brushing wisdom teeth very difficult with food and bacteria getting stuck between the wisdom tooth and the tooth in front or under the gums. Where you can’t brush it properly, bacteria can cause gum infections where the gum covers the wisdom tooth and can lead to swelling, pain and difficulty biting due to pain.

You can also get decay on the wisdom tooth causing pain but in the worst case, you can get decay on the roots of the tooth in front of the wisdom tooth and need this tooth removed as well as needing the wisdom tooth removed.

Signs that you might have a gum infection caused by wisdom teeth include red or inflamed gums, swelling around the area, pain, pus coming from the gums, swollen or sore lymph nodes under the jaw, difficulty opening the mouth or swallowing, fever, or bad breath.

Some wisdom teeth need to be removed by a surgeon under anaesthetic while most can be performed in the chair.

At Dental house we have everything to make you comfortable including happy gas, televisions, our caring team and gentle dentists. The best time to have potentially problematic wisdom teeth removed is when you are young and healthy to minimise any risks.

If problems arise later in life we can still help. To check your wisdom teeth we need to have a look at them in your mouth, as well as taking an OPG Xray to see where the tooth sits in your jaw.

From there we can assess the risks of your wisdom tooth causing trouble and help prevent any future problems.

I hope you found this video useful. If your wisdom teeth are causing you grief, we can help you assess them. Simply call us on 1800GENTLE, complete the enquiry form on our website, or direct message us on social media, and we will be in touch to organise a consultation for you. See you in the next video.