Dealing with an Infected Wisdom Tooth

Wisdom teeth are the last set of teeth that erupt out of our gums.  These teeth usually come out in the mid or early 20's. Though we all need our teeth for chewing and eating food, wisdom teeth tend to be posing a dental threat if they get infected or inflamed.

An infected wisdom tooth can appear to be a common problem, because most people do not have enough room on the jaw for this kind of tooth to erupt.  Wisdom teeth have a high probability of developing abnormally, which dentists call an impacted wisdom tooth.

The abnormal eruption and development can cause an infected wisdom tooth, because the tooth does not have enough room to erupt straight upward.  This will cause the tooth to develop sideways and crash into the tooth beside it.  This can cause a kangaroo pouch like gum formation. When this happen, the gum will have enough space for food particles to be trapped.  These tiny pieces of food will cause decay and eventually affect the molars of the wisdom tooth.

An infected wisdom tooth can bring about excruciating dental pain that may cause headaches and gum swelling. This infection poses a great threat on the dental health because the decaying tooth can harbor bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics.  This gives dentists a hard time of removing a single tooth and at the same time gives the patient so much pain due to abscess and swelling.

Gum swelling due to an infected impacted wisdom tooth can be such a problem because the swelling can extend to the muscles that allow the mouth to open wider. When this happens, there is no other way but for the patient to be under antibiotic medication for 7 days.  This will allow the swelling disappear.  The dentist can only perform the extraction if the swelling has gone down.

Aside from this painful gum swelling, a further wisdom tooth infection problem can happen when the lower wisdom tooth is impacted and the gums swell.  The upper wisdom tooth erupts straight downward. In this case, the upper wisdom tooth will bite the lower swollen gum.  This is terribly painful. This infection is called pericornitis.

If you notice that your growing wisdom teeth are giving you a little discomfort, don’t wait for it to worsen. You need to have a dental check up right away so, that your dentist can perform actions to help you avoid unnecessary pain.