Although they’re called wisdom teeth, they don’t make you any smarter. The name comes from the fact that they emerge when you’re in your late teens or early 20s: the age when everyone assumes you’ve grown wiser. This is a common topic of interest in online dentistry courses, online dentistry CME courses.
Because they’re molars (the strongest type of teeth), they play an important role in helping you grind your food. But they seldom have the chance to do that job. Most of the time, they grow impacted within the soft tissues of your gums and don’t emerge. Here are 4 of the most common types of impaction:
Mesial Impaction
When the tooth grows at an angle toward the front of your mouth, it’s called a mesial impaction as taught in online dentistry courses. It pushes against the surrounding molars, causing irritation and a lot of pain. It becomes more complicated when it erupts partially because it creates a small opening in the gums. Its position makes it hard to clean, creating an easy breeding ground for bacteria. If not removed, it may result in swelling and other gum-related diseases.
Distal Impaction
This is the opposite of the previous type and is the rarest. Distal impaction is characterized by your tooth emerging toward the back of your mouth. Since it doesn’t affect other molars, it isn’t as painful as the first one and seldom requires removal.
However, if its angular growth hits a bone, then a general dentist may recommend pulling it.
Vertical Impaction
A vertically impacted wisdom tooth almost never requires removal. Its orientation follows the growth of any normal molar, so there’s a high chance that they won’t hit another tooth or bone.
There are cases, though, where it’s too close to another tooth, making them bump each other. This condition causes pain and swelling and may requireextraction.
Horizontal Impaction
If there’s one oral problem that you want to avoid, it’s this. It’s the most painful type of impaction because it lies horizontally inside your gums and parallel to your jawbone. It pushes adjacent molars andnearby teeth.
There’s often no way to determine whether you have this condition. It happens under the gums, and no part of the tooth will be seen except through an X-ray. Removing it requires a skillful oral surgeon, and the patient may have to take painkillers and antibiotics when it’s finally extracted.
If you think you have an impacted wisdom tooth, as you will learn in online dentistry CME courses,visita general dentist,or consult an oral surgeon right away. They’ll determine the kind of impaction and whether it should be extracted.