Impacted teeth are the most common cases in oral surgery, and often lower and upper wisdom teeth, maxillary canines and rarely lower-upper jaw premolars may be impacted.
While impacted teeth sometimes do not show any symptoms and do not cause complaints, they sometimes cause head, ear, eye, jaw joint and neck pain depending on the region they are located.
Since there is an area that cannot be cleaned well between the teeth and the gingiva, and between the impacted tooth and the adjacent tooth in front of it, the microorganisms formed as a result of the food residues accumulating here cause recurring infections and caries in the adjacent tooth. In this case, an extremely painful local inflammation of the gingiva, often manifested by swelling (pericoronitis), occurs. This inflammation progresses from the junction of the gingival-cheek mucosa-tonsils; It can cause cheek abscess formation or progress to the neck fascia, causing pharyngeal and retropharyngeal fascia involvement and, if it progresses, very serious infection pictures such as mediastinitis. For this reason, wisdom teeth that are not fully erupted, which are related to the oral environment, should be extracted without hesitation.
Due to their positioning, impacted wisdom teeth can damage the crown or roots of second molars. It can lead to decay of the molar by creating a nutrient accumulation between the molar and the molar. There may be loss of molar teeth without any complaints.
These teeth, which are constantly neglected, considered to last anyway, and sometimes even unaware of their existence, have a high power to push the teeth in front of them. In this case, the anterior teeth may be affected more and their alignment may be impaired. This leads to the need for orthodontic treatment (braces treatment) by causing crowding in the teeth. In individuals who have received orthodontic treatment, if it starts to erupt after the treatment, it may push the other teeth, causing the teeth to be restored and the treatment to fail.
The structure called follicle, which exists around unerupted impacted teeth, can lose its structure and become cystic unless the tooth erupts, can grow by melting the jawbone and cause the jawbone to break or push the surrounding teeth to move. As the cyst grows, it can damage the lower jaw nerve and the tongue nerve, causing permanent numbness in the lip or tongue, and in advanced cases in both.
When they do, they can create a mismatch in the dental closure of the jaws or chewing movements. Forces resulting from early tooth contact may cause adverse effects on the jaw joint. In addition, if the wisdom teeth cannot erupt, they can create a pushing force in the jawbone and cause pain reflected to the joint. When neglected, these pains can be felt in the head and neck.
Since the erupted wisdom teeth are located at the back of the mouth, it is very difficult to clean them and perform filling and root canal treatment when they decay. These teeth, which do not play a role in chewing, are more correct to be pulled when they appear crooked in the mouth.
The presence and condition of these teeth, which may appear with dental x-rays that will be taken during your regular dental check-ups, which should be done from an early age, should be evaluated by the dentist, and if there is a risk, early removal should be planned.
