Wisdom Teeth Removal

Wisdom teeth – a misnomer as they often not the smartest teeth after all! Wisdom teeth usually make an appearance in the mouth behind the second permanent molars between the ages of 17 and 24. Quite often however, there is insufficient space for these teeth to erupt & they can become stuck or ímpacted’, meaning that they do not fully erupt or fail to erupt at all. When this occurs this can result in decay, infection of the gums surrounding the partially erupted tooth (this is called pericoronitis), or cyst formation. In such cases, extraction is often recommended.
The extraction of these teeth is often very similar to the removal of any other tooth. It involves enlarging bone surrounding the roots of the tooth & ‘wiggling’ until it is loose enough to be removed. If the extraction is more complicated then the surgeon may need to raise a flap of gum & remove some bone to enable the tooth to be removed.
Many wisdom tooth extractions can be easily & painlessly removed with local anaesthetic at our surgery. For more complicated cases or due to patient’s wishes we can also arrange to carry out the surgery under intravenous sedation or general anaesthetic at a day surgery.