Oral Surgery

A common oral surgery is performed on the wisdom teeth, otherwise known as the third molars. These are the last set of teeth to develop, and can emerge from the gum line and the jaw is large enough to allow room for them. However, for the most part, this is not the case. More often, one or more of these third molars fails to emerge in proper alignment or fails to fully emerge through the gum line and becomes entrapped or “impacted” between the jawbone and the gum tissue. These impacted wisdom teeth can result in swelling, pain and infection of the gum tissue surrounding the wisdom teeth. In addition, impacted wisdom teeth can cause permanent damage to nearby teeth, gums and bone and can sometimes lead to the formation of cysts or tumors that can destroy sections of the jaw. For this reason, we recommend these impacted teeth to be surgically removed.

Of course, it’s not always wisdom teeth that need to be surgically removed. Other teeth, such as the cuspids and the bicuspids can become impacted, and cause the same problems as described above with impacted wisdom teeth.