So to say I have had my own slew of medical problems would be an understatement. Never in a million years though would I have thought that wisdom teeth could be a severe problem especially after some of my much worse medical issues. After placing an emergency call with my dentist and doing my own research, it now appears that I have an infection resulting from unknown impacted 2nd wisdom tooth erupting into the original wisdom tooth that came in years ago on the bottom left side of my face.
The only course of action now is to have the affected teeth removed which can't be done until the infection has cleared with the help of antibiotics. This is something the dentist wants done soon as the swelling from the infection can cause my airway to close and the infection itself can also get into my blood which like the airway closing can be potentially fatal. The dentist is also concerned about the infection due to my already existing TMJ disorder further complicating matters.
This really sort of puts thing into perspective a bit for me now as I never really viewed wisdom teeth as being something that could cause such an extreme problem. In all honesty it just feels like I have a bearable yet painful case of the flu. This also worries me because I have heard the horror stories about how wisdom teeth should be removed at a younger age because the older a person gets the more lengthy the recovery process takes. One of the things that bothers me the most was my orthodontic surgeons decision to not remove these teeth when the upper wisdom teeth were taken out. It really could have saved me a lot of pain and worry. So here's hoping that I can have this problem resolved without it getting any worse.
That sounds awful. I wish you a speedy recovery. My dentist has avoided removing mine as well, and so far I have only growing pains and nothing more complicated. Get well soon!
ReplyDeleteThank you!! :-) I think it's a bit silly the decision to remove them is up to the dentist or surgeon. I really think that we as the patients should get to make that choice. I wish you luck with your teeth and that you have no problems down the road.
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