# Wisdom Teeth



## Katkoota (Feb 18, 2006)

Do you have them? did you extract them? 

Makes me wonder if these teeth are necessary when all I hear people do is remove them. Some have valid reasons to remove them, others just say that you just don't need them even if they are growing perfectly coz they say that eventually, they cause problems later:blink: what are your thoughts on this?). 

Just curious if the majority here have theirs removed. I created a poll for this above. I personally removed no wisdom teeth (yet). So I am gonna click on 'No' in the above poll. I've been *meaning to* book an appointment way back in time to see if I need to remove the i still feel and see growing teeth. Gotta put my plan in actual action.

ETA - if the answer is not available in the above poll, feel free to type it bellow


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## Furbabies mom (Jul 25, 2011)

Well...... I have 2 and have had 2 removed!!! Where do I stand?????


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## Katkoota (Feb 18, 2006)

Furbabies mom said:


> Well...... I have 2 and have had 2 removed!!! Where do I stand?????


Woopsie. Sorry Debora for not thinking of this scenario. 

I guess you stand in between .. Two yes and two no :thumbsup:


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## harrysmom (Sep 28, 2007)

Becky,

I am 52 and I still have my wisdom teeth. They have never given me any trouble, so I never saw any reason to remove them. I have 3 kids, ages 23, 25, and 27. The only one who has ever had a wisdom tooth issue was my 25 year old daughter. Her wisdom teeth were growing in and pushing the rest of her teeth out of line, so she had them removed a few years ago. 

If your wisdom teeth aren't bothering you, then my advice is don't bother them. If they ever bother you, you can do something at that time. 

Hugs,
Debbie


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## Katkoota (Feb 18, 2006)

harrysmom said:


> If your wisdom teeth aren't bothering you, then my advice is don't bother them. If they ever bother you, *you can do something at that time.*


Thanks Debbie. The only thing I don't like about later is that I heard that the older one gets, the harder it will be to remove them (if ever needed).


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## Sylie (Apr 4, 2011)

I think that one of the main reasons people have them removed is because they can over-crowd the mouth and because they are especially hard to clean, therefore prone to decay. Personally, I think teeth are a flawed design...beaks are much better.


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## zooeysmom (Aug 1, 2011)

Sylie said:


> I think that one of the main reasons people have them removed is because they can over-crowd the mouth and because they are especially hard to clean, therefore prone to decay. Personally, I think teeth are a flawed design...beaks are much better.


LOL definitely!


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## Johita (Jul 10, 2009)

I got all four of mine removed because they were fully grown inside my gums and were pushing all my other teeth together. I got two removed one summer and ther other two from the other side of my face removed the following summer. Recovery was the worse thing ever - I felt like I looked like the girl from the Excorsist and I couldn't find comfort in anything. I also have trouble taking pills so I had to crush the pills into my yogurt or whatever else I could/eat drink at the time and it tasted soooo nasty. Yuck!


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## allheart (Oct 3, 2008)

My dear sweet Loving Kat, no, never had any of mine removed. I know of people of all ages that have, but because they were causing them problems. Honestly? I would have anything touched, unless it is causing problems.

LOVE YOU.


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## Madison's Mom (Dec 26, 2007)

I had one removed by a dentist. The recovery was awful. The other two I had removed by an oral surgeon. Recovery was a piece of cake. This was in my early 20s....I only had three.


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## mysugarbears (Aug 13, 2007)

I had one removed last March, because it cracked and i had an infection. I was awake, but had tons of pain meds when it was removed, the pain was nothing compared to the pain of the tooth. The tooth didn't really want to come out, but recovery wasn't bad, just swelling and bruising. So i guess i'm in between.


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## silverhaven (Sep 6, 2009)

I still have a couple. My 3 kids all had them all removed though. Seems the recommended way to go these days.


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## Maidto2Maltese (Oct 19, 2004)

I hda two and both have been removed...I'm almost 66 yrs old and these were removed when in my mid 20s. The first one got abcessed.. and later the same with the other.
Both came in crooked..( one worse than the other) My reg dentist removed both and truthfully it wasn't any different than when I had to have a reg molar removed back in my 40s. 
I've always had 'problem-teeth" since a kid... in fact most of my family have had teeth issues so might be a genetic things with us.

However, if I didn't have a problem.. I'd leave them alone. Of course the best one to advise would be your dentist.


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## Summergirl73 (Sep 18, 2011)

I had my 4 wisdom teeth removed when I was about 24 yrs old. I can't really recall the why, but I do know 1 or 2 of them were growing in side ways. The recovery hurt like heck for almost a week, and I had a ton of stitches, but I think that was because of the way the teeth were causing problems. I wouldn't do it if it weren't necessary. I figure God put them there for 1 reason or another LOL.


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## beckybc03 (Jul 6, 2006)

I had all 4 removed when I was 17. Mine were all impacted so it was done by an oral surgeon and I was out. It took probably 4-5 days to recover and I didn't think it was too bad. My dentist/orthodontist wanted them removed because they were growing sideways and would have messed up all of the work my braces did.


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## Furbabies mom (Jul 25, 2011)

Both of my kids had theirs removed because they were getting braces. Too much crowding. An oral surgeon removed them.


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## mom2bijou (Oct 19, 2006)

Mine were all removed at different times. 2 became impacted at around 21yrs old. Then one removed about 3 years later and my last pulled when I was 26. If they aren't pushing your other teeth together and they have room to stay them you can probably keep them. However, if they get impacted the pain is awful! I'll never forget mine getting impacted on a weekend and having to be in pain till I could get a dentist appointment Monday!


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## beckinwolf (Sep 2, 2008)

I had mine out when I was around 19. The dental x-rays showed them, and they were all sideways, so we knew they wouldn't be coming in correctly. I had 3 other adult teeth removed shortly before that to make room for the rest. I had braces for 4 years to straighten everything out. When I was a kid I had teeth that were very crowded.


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## romeo&juliet (Jun 23, 2011)

For me my wisdom tooth started give me alot of problems i have two that are still around and 2 removed. For me they became painful so i had them removed. The other two so far no pain but it will be a matter of time before they do and i will remove them also. :thumbsup:


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## Lacie's Mom (Oct 11, 2006)

My were removed because they were impacted and infected as well as overcrowding of my other teeth. I had them done in the hospital when I was 19. All 4 were done at one time. I think that I had them done in the hospital because my Dad's insurance covered it.


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## Maglily (Feb 3, 2009)

I had mine removed because I thought they were crowding my teeth causing the front ones to start to overlap. they hadn't broken thru the gum at all and only had 3 not 4. I had them removed in surgery (not at the dentist).


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## Katkoota (Feb 18, 2006)

you see, again the vast majority have had them removed, even here in SM (according to poll result so far). 

Tooth ache is a pet peeve of mine. From what I am hearing about wisdom teeth is when they cause a problem, they cause it well. At this moment, mine aren't bothering. They are almost complete in their growth. But if they will continue to be around, they gotta not think of causing troubles. Just thinking that they might cause a problem later makes me wanna get rid of them now lol .. 
The only risk-mitigation-plan to avoid that from happening which comes in mind is removing them. I will think this out with the dentist (when i get around it).


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## Katkoota (Feb 18, 2006)

Sylie said:


> I think that one of the main reasons people have them removed is because they can over-crowd the mouth and because they are especially hard to clean, therefore prone to decay. Personally, I think teeth are a flawed design...*beaks are much better*.


Dante de Rose gives you all wings up for the words in bold :chili:



Johita said:


> I felt like I looked like the girl from the Excorsist


wowza Edith...that girl scared me to death :w00t: My friend still owes me for playing the old video tape which she managed to sneak from her aunt's room into hers when we were around 11 years. I watched very little of it and heard its creepy noises/voices but goodness, the look of the girl stuck into mind and that was just no good. I don't think you looked anywhere close to that image though :thumbsup: 



silverhaven said:


> I still have a couple. My 3 kids all had them all removed though. Seems the recommended way to go these days.


Interesting to read, Maureen. 



Summergirl73 said:


> I figure God put them there for 1 reason or another LOL.


and that's what makes me stand between the two fences. if not for this thought, they would have been gone without needing to double think it :blush:


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## Aarianne (Jul 22, 2005)

I believe wisdom teeth are there so that when you lose teeth (more common in the past), you have some replacements that can fall into place. If they remain inactive and don't cause problems, then there wouldn't be a need to have them removed, but for many people they do seem to cause problems at some point. 

A couple of mine were growing in in my early 20's and my jaws were already crowded. The surgeon had difficulty removing one tooth that hadn't yet emerged as it had a curly-Q root or something and it snapped off during surgery. He decided to leave the little leftover piece in there instead of risking damaging some nerves trying to get it out. He said if it ever caused problems in the future I could opt for surgery to remove it, though he didn't expect it to migrate or cause problems. That was about a decade ago or so and I wouldn't even know it's there had he not explained what had happened. Recovery was a bit unpleasant, but it was pretty much as expected (my boyfriend at the time had his wisdom teeth removed before mine). 

You do heal better when you're young, but I think if mine weren't moving by my mid-twenties, I'd opt to just leave them alone unless my dentist thinks I'm insane for doing so. lol


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## Dixie's Mama (Mar 19, 2008)

I'm with Deborah. I have the 2 on the bottom but haven't had the top 2 for years.


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## Deborah (Jan 8, 2006)

I had 4 wisdom teeth, The first one was growing into my jaw. I had the dentist remove it and he had to cut into the gum to get the little rascal out and I had stitches. Two more were removed one by one when they became a problem. The last one was the only one to come in and caused trouble with my mouth.
These removals were years apart so only one part of my mouth hurt. My son had all 4 removed at once and was put under he was not a happy camper.
I also had gum growths in my bottom mouth which an oral surgeon removed. He thought I was going to beat him up because my face was such a mess. He did not think it would take so long and how difficult the surgery would be. I would get stuff stuck in the bottom of my mouth and would take hours to extract. After that I had the same guy remove the growths on the chin side of my mouth. This is a heredity condition. The dentist is about the only Dr. I see that I am not scared to death. Any other Dr. make me panic. I am an excellent dental patient.


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## *Missy* (Oct 7, 2011)

I only have three only two have come in but I don't know how I would feel about having them removed...I'm terrified of things like that so I just hope it never has to happen! They HURT BAD coming in and really were annoying. The pain would be steady for a couple weeks then nothing. Then boom again. The other has not come in. Thankfully the ones that have come in have not pushed my teeth together. I had braces in jr high so I would be worried about them screwing my teeth up after all the "pain and torture" of the braces being for nothing! Haha


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## Katkoota (Feb 18, 2006)

Aarianne said:


> I believe wisdom teeth are there so that when you lose teeth (more common in the past), you have some replacements that can fall into place. If they remain inactive and don't cause problems, then there wouldn't be a need to have them removed, but *for many people they do seem to cause problems at some point.*


Does make sense, except that I am not fond of the words in bold facts. Goodness and I look at the status of % in the poll result today, it went up to 79.55% in the group who removed these teeth in SM. I get similar results anywhere I ask, in a sense that the majority remove them at some point :w00t: 



*Missy* said:


> I only have three only two have come in but I don't know how I would feel about having them removed...I'm terrified of things like that so I just hope it never has to happen!


I feel much better about the idea of getting rid of wisdome teeth than the thought of them aching bad at some point later, then maybe the difficulties of removing them. 

I am so ok with dentists (I think that removing 4 teeth to make space during my braces time in my early teens, trained me well. I don't fear having teeth removed. I fear the ache before the dentist. I actually see the dentist to be pain reliever for that matter). 

Having said that, from what I am reading here, a surgeon dentist sounds like a better idea if I thought out the idea of removing the wisdom teeth with my dentist (without her thinking it is not recommended to remove them). 



*Missy* said:


> They HURT BAD coming in and really were annoying. The pain would be steady for a couple weeks then nothing. Then boom again. The other has not come in. Thankfully the ones that have come in have not pushed my teeth together. I had braces in jr high so I would be worried about them screwing my teeth up after all the "pain and torture" of the braces being for nothing! Haha


I know this so well: "really were annoying. The pain would be steady for a couple weeks then nothing. Then boom again"...except that with me, they don't really go painful. They do, however, give an irritating feeling. So I would be better at saying that the irritating feeling would be steady for a week or so, then nothing. Then boom again. I swear, you can so feel them as they grow. All my four teeth came in, but I don't think they completed growing as they are not in a full normal teeth size yet, but I am assuming that they are almost close. Last time I had this irritating feeling (not painful) was last week, which brings back the thoguht that they might cause problems later on. hmm I just hope that my dentist wont think that I am insane for wanting to remove them since so far, they aren't bothering in a sense that they are painful, also not pushing the rest of the teeth. I had braces in my early teens and did remove 4 teeth already coz it was crowded there.


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## Alexa (Aug 6, 2009)

Oh Kat, that's an awful story! I had all 4 removed by a oral surgeon years ago. My jaw was too small and when they started growing I had strong pains.

I never would have touched them if they wouldn't have caused me so many pains! :angry:

Alexandra :wub:


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## LJSquishy (Feb 27, 2008)

I had all four of mine removed when I was around 19 or 20 years old. I had plenty of room in my mouth for them, but two of them were growing sideways and the dentist said they would damage my jawbone. They recommended having all four removed even though two of them were okay.

Recovery was great! I never felt any pain during or after the procedure! I did take the pain meds they gave me for a few days but did not finish the prescription and I was fine. It was a pain to keep the gauze in your mouth and not be able to use a straw.


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## Katkoota (Feb 18, 2006)

Alexa said:


> I had all 4 removed by a oral surgeon years ago. My jaw was too small and when they started growing I had strong pains.


I'm not getting pain out of them so far, but I still worry that they would cause it at some point later. 
The status in SM increases to the # of SMers who had theirs removed (it is 80.43% now:w00t .. let alone the rest of SM who didn't answer the poll (I have a feeling that even if everyone ticked on a 'yes' or 'no', it would still go higher with the ones who removed them eventually. I see that there is a vote for no wisdome teeth to remove. I so wish that was me lol



LJSquishy said:


> I had all four of mine removed when I was around 19 or 20 years old. I had plenty of room in my mouth for them, but two of them were growing sideways and the dentist said they would damage my jawbone. They recommended having all four removed even though two of them were okay.
> 
> Recovery was great! I never felt any pain during or after the procedure! I did take the pain meds they gave me for a few days but did not finish the prescription and I was fine. It was a pain to keep the gauze in your mouth and not be able to use a straw.


Interesting that they recommended the removal of the two other teeth that were ok....Okay, this gives me some confident that I might get an 'ok' from my dentist


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## maggieh (Dec 16, 2007)

Like some of the others on here, I had mine removed when I was in my late teens - I think 19. 2 were coming in sideways and stabbing me in the side of the mouth and the other 2 were "impacted" (not coming in ) but were positioned such that if they did start to come through I could have been in a lot of pain. Since the 2 that were showing were affecting a nerve, it was a general anesthetic, so the doc said let's take them all while you're out. Haven't thought about it since until now - and that was over 30 years ago!


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