Tag: Wisdom teeth

Do you really need to get your wisdom teeth extracted? :DR.DEBBIE

Do you really need to get your wisdom teeth extracted? :DR.DEBBIE

The most common question from patients regarding wisdom teeth “Dr, do I really need to remove all my wisdom teeth? I am really afraid of surgery! “ The answer is : yes and no. It really depends on the eruption of the 3rd molars /…

Why the 3rd molar is called the wisdom tooth? :DR.DEBBIE

Why the 3rd molar is called the wisdom tooth? :DR.DEBBIE

      Well, the 3rd molar is commonly known as wisdom tooth as they usually appear between age 18 to 29 , when a person matures into adulthood !      Generally everyone has 2 upper & 2 lower 3rd molars . A 3rd molar is usually extracted when…

Wisdom teeth, not so wise after all. – Dr. Shanaz

Wisdom teeth, not so wise after all. – Dr. Shanaz

Throughout our young adult life, most of us would definitely have some sort of tooth ache resulting from the annoying wisdom tooth. The pain usually progresses from a bearable slight pain, to annoying and pulsating pain causing mood swings and head-splitting headaches at times.

And some lucky people might not even have any problems whatsoever!

The function of wisdom teeth were meant to help us chew our food efficiently, though with the progress of technology and the bloom of the industrial and agriculture age, food nowadays are easily consumable and much softer than for our ancient cavemen ancestors. Therefore, our (human) jaws have adapted, grown slightly smaller and usually cannot accommodate the third set of molars (wisdom teeth).

Though the jaw has accommodated, the wisdom teeth still needs to grow.

This is where most of the problems start. With lack of space, the wisdom teeth do their best to erupt into our oral cavity but usually ending up impacted:

  • Sometimes horizontally, causing food impaction and caries in future.
  • Sometimes too outwardly, causing a lot of cheek biting
  • Sometimes upright, but not quite in occlusion, causing gum to overgrow and leading to painful bites
  • Sometimes slightly tilted, but also promoting a lot of food impaction
Caries at the junctions of the wisdom teeth and the 2nd molars due to the food impaction

 

And this is when we come in, as dental surgeons, by removing the impacted wisdom teeth, or relieving the heavily keratinised soft tissue that might be preventing the full eruption of the tooth, and also restoring the teeth next to the wisdom tooth that might have developed a cavity due to the impaction.

Hopefully, the occurrence of wisdom teeth reduces as we as human evolve to our ever changing surroundings.

Feel free to comment below or email me at shanaz@story.drfauziah.com if you have any questions regarding wisdom tooth surgeries, minor oral surgeries or anything dental related too!

Trust me, I’m a Doctor – Dr. Shanaz

Trust me, I’m a Doctor – Dr. Shanaz

In this modern age, information has become ever more accessible. Anything and everything can be accessed or found in the internet nowadays. A simple click of a button will allow you to gain access to thousands and thousands of books, recordings, notes, journals, articles and…

Siti’s New Smile: Dr Fauziah

Siti’s New Smile: Dr Fauziah

Siti and her husband, Syed Uzair, were our patients this afternoon. I asked them as they walked in who was going to go first. Siti smiled shyly and sat down in the dental chair whilst her husband, with great relief, let her go first! It…