The back molars, also known as wisdom teeth, seem to be the last adult teeth that emerge in your mouth. The teeth arise on both the top and bottom sides, usually between the age of 17 to 21. Various people don’t acquire enough space in their jaws just to accommodate the wisdom teeth without other teeth shifting. This could lead to certain types of issues.
In that case, your dentist would suggest surgery to remove the wisdom teeth. Moreover, wisdom tooth removal is pretty common, and its recovery might take almost one week, as in your case. Recovery might take much time if your wisdom tooth experiences some impact. This depicts that the teeth have not come from below the gums and are not visible.
Let’s quickly dive into the information regarding how long to recover from wisdom teeth removal.
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What are wisdom teeth?
Wisdom teeth serve as the last set of adult teeth to grow. Most popularly known as third molars, the wisdom teeth lie at the very back of your mouth. At times, wisdom teeth grow properly which never causes any sort of trouble.
Very often, wisdom teeth become fully or partially entrapped in your gums or jawbone. Whenever this occurs, it might lead to cavities, infection, gum disease, and other types of oral health problems. Due to this, various healthcare providers suggest the removal of wisdom teeth.
As per researchers, wisdom teeth serve as an essential part of the ancestors, as their diet usually includes crunchy leaves, hard nuts, and uncooked meat. Nowadays, however, people eat more cooked food and make use of knives and forks just to cut up the food into smaller pieces. Due to this, wisdom teeth are considered an unnecessary part that requires removal.
How do you know if you should remove your wisdom teeth?
At times, all four wisdom teeth normally erupt and don’t result in any type of problems. But, at certain times, wisdom teeth grow at an angle or remain fully or partially trapped under gum tissue or in the jawbone. This might result in various types of issues. The dentist might suggest tooth removal in certain cases:-
- When debris and food get trapped around the wisdom teeth.
- Have dental pain near the back of your mouth.
- When gum disease arises, usually around the molars.
- When you have tooth decay in partially erupted wisdom teeth.
- Development of a cyst around one or more wisdom teeth.
- Experiences sustained damage to nearby teeth or around the surrounding bone.
In various cases, the dentist suggests wisdom teeth removal as a preventive measure. Due to this, the dentist might suggest the removal of wisdom teeth even if you don’t pursue any type of symptom.
This might help to reduce your risk for various future issues, which might include tooth decay or infection. And, as per the dentist’s suggestion removal of wisdom teeth should be done in the early 20s or during the late teens. At this stage, wisdom teeth are in the forming stage and might become easy to remove with fewer complications.
How long does it take to remove wisdom teeth?
Usually, the removal of wisdom teeth takes almost one hour or less than that. More complex removal cases might take a much longer time. And, during the removal of wisdom teeth, the healthcare provider administers local anaesthesia just to numb up the gums and teeth.
Impacted wisdom teeth get exposed with incisions, which offers your dentist proper access. When wisdom teeth get visible, the surgeon carefully loosens them up and lifts them from their sockets. After that, the surgeon cleans up the area and places stitches properly. In certain cases, the stitches would entirely fall out on their own on certain days.
Risks and advantages of removing wisdom
Apart from grabbing information about how long to recover from wisdom teeth removal, let’s know about its advantages and risks. The major advantage of wisdom teeth removal is that it lessens the risk of future oral health issues, like tooth decay, gum disease, damage to adjacent teeth, or jaw damage.
If you develop pain due to wisdom teeth, then the removal could result in discomfort quickly and make you get back on track to proper oral health. Sometimes, the removal of wisdom teeth doesn’t lead to long-term complications. In most rare cases, people might develop certain risks:-
- Dry sockets result in blood loss that leads to exposed bone.
- Infection.
- Damage to various other oral structures, that possess nerves, jawbone, nearby teeth, or sinuses.
- Gum disease.
- Tumours.
Things to do after wisdom teeth removal
After the removal of wisdom teeth, you are not so sure about how to take care of your mouth for another few days. Here is a list of entire valuable things that you require to know after wisdom teeth removal.
Maintains clean mouth
Removal of wisdom teeth seems common, but it serves as a medical operation. So, it is pretty mandatory to know how to keep the operation area hygienic, clean, and safe from various infections. Ensure to brush the teeth at surgery night, but wait to rinse the mouth until the next day.
Take ample rest
It is the best advice given by healthcare providers, as with help of proper food intake and proper rest the recovery becomes smooth. Stay away from any type of physical activity after the removal of wisdom teeth for 24 hours. Ensure to elevate your head and relax with some sort of comfortable pillow.
Get back to normal hygiene routine
Along with surgery, it might become tempting to get into certain bad habits regarding personal hygiene. Ensure not to go towards a new lifestyle, filled with bad habits. Within 24 hours of your surgery, you could return to your normal routine like flossing and brushing. Try your best to prevent surgical site brushing.
Take appropriate diet
After the removal of wisdom teeth, you are required to consider a new diet plan. In this situation, you need to take soft food instead of taking hard food. Eat soft and little cold food that passes through your throat and mouth without much irritation, such as ice cream, smoothies, pudding, and yogurt. Apart from this, you can also take semi-solid food, like warm soups, as per time.
When should you visit the doctor?
At times, the removal of wisdom teeth doesn’t lead to serious complications. However, you need to visit the doctor if you experience certain signs:-
- Fever of 100.4℉ or higher than this.
- In case of heavy bleeding.
- Pus oozing out from one or more removal sites.
- In case of swelling that gets worse after three days.
- Pain that doesn’t get improved with medication.
- Facial numbness.
- Difficulty in breathing and swallowing.
- Pus or blood in nasal drainage.
How long does to recover from wisdom teeth removal?
Certain people get comfortable in almost three to four days, but it might take a few weeks for your gums to get entirely healed. Your dentist would give you the entire post-surgical instructions in detail which makes you pretty comfortable. Let’s dive into certain useful guidelines that allow you to achieve comfortable recovery after removal:-
- Ensure to take rest as much as possible for certain few days after surgery.
- Prevent stressful activity for almost 48 to 72 hours.
- Place an ice pack or a cold compress on your face as it helps in reducing swelling.
- Ensure to keep entire surgical sites clean just by gently soaking the site with help of antimicrobial mouthwash.
- Avoid vigorous swish, as it could dislodge blood clots and lead into dry sockets.
- Brush the other teeth normally as you do.
- Make sure to take your medications, which include pain relievers and antibiotics just as prescribed.
Conclusion
Wisdom teeth seem to be an unnecessary feature of the human body and this removal might not hurt the functioning of the body. So, the removal of wisdom teeth serves as a correct passage for many young and teen adults all over the globe. But, one question must arise in mind – how long to recover from wisdom teeth? Above is the complete guide regarding this.
And, if your wisdom teeth erupt with alignment with other teeth and don’t lead to any type of problem, you need not do anything. To get more information about wisdom teeth, and whether you should remove them or not, get help from your healthcare provider. But, its removal could lessen your risk for future dental problems.