Why Do Gums Get Swollen Around Stuck Teeth?

If you have half-erupted wisdom teeth, dental overcrowding isn’t your only problem. You could also be at risk for pericoronitis: inflammation around a dental crown. At Alta Loma Dental Care, we care for patients of all ages and keep a sharp eye out for problems in how adolescent patients’ teeth erupt. If pericoronitis is not stopped, it could lead to pain and a worse infection.

Dentists say teeth are “impacted” when they are unable to fully push through the gum line. It is common for the upper canines to be impacted and for the lower wisdom teeth to get stuck after partially erupting. The wisdom teeth can be especially troublesome because they often do not emerge until the patient has already undergone orthodontic work and is old enough for their jaw bone to have become more resistant to tooth migration. An impacted wisdom tooth will often be partially covered by a flap of gum tissue called an operculum. The operculum is a trap for food debris and bacterial build-up, causing the gum tissue to be inflamed.

Patients will struggle to clean a partially-covered tooth. They may try oral antibiotics and swishing warm salt water around their mouths, but the infections will likely recur. At our office, we can cut away an operculum and extract most impacted wisdom teeth. The procedure will leave the patient free from the risk of overcrowding and any additional discomfort that could result. But if patients maintain regular dental appointments, we will be able to identify stalled wisdom teeth earlier.

Alta Loma Dental Care is at 7283 Carnelian St, Alta Loma, California, 91701. To schedule an appointment, call 909-987-6268 or visit Alta Loma Dental Care and fill out a contact sheet.

 

Why Teeth are Extracted

We promise to provide patients with the all the information they need to make the best decisions at Alta Loma Dental Care. When tooth extractions are on the table, patients will naturally want to know whether they’re the best choice, which is why we wanted to explain some of the reasons why teeth might need to be removed.

We provide new crowns to teeth that are badly decayed or cracked, but in the worst cases, there is a limit to what we can do. A tooth that has been broken all the way down to the root will need to be removed so it can be replaced with an implant. This process will allow the jaw bone to retain its mass and avoid the risk of infection. A tooth might also be removed in cases of unusual development, such as if the baby teeth never fall out naturally.

The majority of extractions are done to preserve the shape of a patient’s dental arch. We provide 6-month Smiles orthodontics at our practice, and but fixing significant problems with the patient’s bite may require us to make more room by removing a set of premolars. The wisdom teeth are also frequently removed because there is not enough room for them to fully erupt without displacing teeth that have already undergone orthodontic care.

Alta Loma Dental Care is at 7283 Carnelian St, Alta Loma, California, 91701. To schedule an appointment, call 909-987-6268 or visit Alta Loma Dental Care and fill out a contact sheet.

 

What is the Purpose of Wisdom Teeth?

Wisdom teeth are the third and final set of molars that most people get in their late teens, or early twenties. During this “age of wisdom” phase, sometimes teeth can be a valuable asset to the mouth when healthy and properly aligned, but more often they are misaligned and require removal. Some might think of wisdom teeth as spare tires, because if you lost your teeth, the wisdom teeth would be extra teeth that come in and function like normal teeth. Here at Alta Loma Dental Care Dr. Kim can perform extractions depending on their position and stage of development.

So why do we have them? Anthropologists believe wisdom teeth or the third set of molars, were the evolutionary answer to our ancestor’s early diet of coarse, rough food – like leaves, roots, nuts and meats – which required more chewing power and resulted in excessive wear of the teeth. The modern diet with its softer foods, along with marvels of modern technologies such as forks, spoons and knives, has made the need for wisdom teeth nonexistent; however, they don’t always need to be removed.

If your wisdom teeth are still present and they are beginning to bother you, give us a call to discuss your options. To learn more about our orthodontic services visit www.altalomadentalcare.com for more information. To schedule a consultation with Dr. Kim at Alta Loma Dental Care in Alta Loma, CA, call 909-987-6268.

Alta Loma Dental Care Performs Wisdom Teeth Extractions

Your third and final molars to emerge are your wisdom teeth, which usually come in when you are between 17 and 25 years old. While many people do not experience problems with these new teeth, many others find that theirs must be removed. If your mouth does not have enough room for these molars to come in, a wisdom tooth extraction is necessary, and at our office in Alta Loma, CA, Dr. Michael Kim can determine whether a wisdom tooth extraction is the best course of action for you.

Wisdom teeth are usually removed because they become impacted, which means that the tooth does not have enough room to come in straight through the gums and instead emerges at an angle. This can cause pain, damage to the jaw and a more crooked smile. Additionally, the site of impaction can become a bacterial hotspot since impacted wisdom teeth are hard to clean.

Wisdom teeth extractions can range from removing a single tooth to removing all four teeth at once. Dr. Kim will let you know what he thinks is best for you. For the procedure, he will use either a local anesthetic to numb the area or a general anesthetic to sedate you while the teeth are extracted. The tooth will then be accessed through an incision in the gums and wiggled until it is loose enough to be lifted out. If the tooth is too deeply embedded to be removed this way, it will be broken up into pieces before being removed.

Whether you are already feeling pain due to impacted wisdom teeth or have not yet felt them come in, we can determine if your wisdom teeth will cause problems for you. To schedule an appointment at Alta Loma Dental Care, call (909) 987-6268. For more information, visit www.altalomadentalcare.com.