Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Can wisdom teeth be repositioned?
Wisdom teeth that are impacted or otherwise unhealthy are frequently removed in the US, even if they cause no discomfort or other ailments. I understand that this is the remove the potential for there to be such developments later on. When I was a kid, for some reason, my primary (baby) teeth refused to fall out on their own and obviously this caused a whole set of problems with my permanent teeth when they tried to grow in (at one point I had a double row of teeth, sick, I know). Eventually the primary teeth were removed (excruciatingly painfully sometimes, giving me a long-lasting wariness of dentists) and braces corrected my permanents. Now, my wisdom teeth have mostly erupted but they're slanted towards my last row of molars; they're not quite impacted just yet, but they will be. Now, instead of having them removed (which compared to my proposal might actually be less painful), could they simply be "adjusted" so that they face upwards and continue to grow out normally? I've been told that there isn't enough space in my mouth but one of them has grown out almost fully, it stopped after hitting the top of the molar just anterior to it, and there is more than enough room left below it to the tooth line (X-rays don't show it to be longer than any other tooth) and enough for the lower wisdom tooth to come up. In the case of that tooth, the smallest change in its angle will allow it to fully erupt, and that's my question. Is it possible for them to be simply repositioned (although I'm sure there's nothing particularly simple about the actual adjustment) rather than outright removed?
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