Wisdom Teeth Extraction
pretty much all of us have some story about wisdom teeth extraction. And if you don' t have your personal story yet, there is always some "good friend" who will gladly share a story with you. At Mead Square Smiles we understand the "excitement" and emotions behind all the stories and we are here to help you feel better about the experience with your wisdom teeth removal. Wisdom teeth cause more problems than any other tooth in the mouth. They will either partially break the gum tissue and grow in crooked or remain underneath the gum. In nine out of ten people, at least one tooth remains underneath the gum - referred to as an impacted tooth, causing symptoms of future problems of varying degrees. "Even if you have no symptoms now, headaches, earaches, pain in the face, neck, throat and upper and lower teeth can occur if impacted wisdom teeth are not removed."
Throughout my dental career I have personally extracted over 20 thousands of wisdom teeth. There are not very many things which could possibly surprise me during or after surgery. I would say I am experienced in oral surgery. I have finished Oral surgery residency program at University hospital in Olomouc, Czech Republic, after that I worked in oral surgery and Trauma departments in Zlin, Czech Republic.
A couple of things to remember before surgery:
You need to decide whether or not you want / need to be sedated for this procedure. You can ask me during your initial consultation about safe oral sedation protocol. You also need a couple of days to recover from the surgery. It is not really a big surgery, takes a couple of minutes, but because it is in your mouth, you may be swollen and uncomfortable. We try to minimize the swelling by a combination of drugs the day of the surgery, but still you must expect some swelling and discomfort . Usually (if there is no complication) your initial healing is done within 3 days and you can go back to school/work. There is however fair number of cases, when the healing is not completed and after 3 days you experience pain and even more swelling. This condition is known as a dry socket. The Dry socket is a term for complication after tooth extraction, when the blood clot at the jaw-bone where the roots of your tooth used to be disintegrates and the area gets infected. That unfortunately happens to one out of 4-5 people with extractions. The group with a greater risk involves young women who are on birth-control pills and or smokers. Your risk of getting a dry socket is greater.
How to recognize a complication:
After initial discomfort (1-2 days) and when the second day it seems that it is getting better, the pain gets progressively (within a couple of hours) worst. Nothing helps. There doesn't need to be any significant swelling with this event, just pain and foul odor from the extraction site - your mouth.
If that happens, please let me know. Call the office number or my cell-phone if that happens on weekend. A simple procedure can drastically improve your discomfort, but has to be done by a dentist.
Bleeding after surgery is normal. You can expect small amount of bleeding even a couple of days after the surgery. Your saliva may be pink for a couple of days. Some people experience bleeding the morning after surgery. If you have almost no bleeding at all, that's o.k too, but then you may expect swelling of greater magnitude.

Please feel free to talk to me about any concerns you might have regarding your wisdom teeth removal. I am sure I will be able to address any concerns about the procedure.