Having Your Wisdom Teeth Taken Out
The scope of this article is to look at the operation to remove your wisdom teeth and the means of making a quick recovery from having your wisdom teeth or tooth removed underlocal anaesthetic.
I have just had my lower jaw wisdom teeth removed (I have none in the top jaw) so it seemed particularly pertinent to look into how best to recover from this small operation.
You will only be referred to have your wisdom teeth taken out if they are causing pain, are regularly becoming infected or are impacted - i.e. growing at an wrong angle and affecting other teeth or growing into the gum making them hard to clean properly or if they have crumbled. I was initially referred for my lower wisdom teeth to be removed because one had partially disintegrated, x-rays showed the other was also decaying and both were impacted partly growing into the gum rather then erupting properly. Between referral and when they were removed, one did become infected, which was painful.
In the UK you are very likely to have your wisdom teeth taken out in hospital by a dental surgeon rather then at your local dentist. This is because the location of the wisdom teeth makes them more difficult to extract and the lower wisdom teeth often have a more complicated root system then your other teeth. This also makes extraction harder. The advantage of having your wisdom teeth out in hospital is that this is free at the point of service. However you will have to wait. I waited 4 months between my initial dental appointment and the wisdom tooth removal date.
In most cases removal of wisdom teeth takes place under local anaesthetic. You can opt for a general anaesthetic, but there are slightly greater risks if you do so and recovery from a general anaesthetic takes longer then recovery from a local anaesthetic.
