The wisdom teeth, or third molars, are the final adult teeth to emerge in your mouth. These tend to appear between the ages of 17 and 25. These four teeth rarely grow in properly because the human jaw has become smaller over the years. This can cause them to become impacted, or stuck, either completely or partially, below the gum line and jawbone. Several indications reveal that it’s time to have your wisdom teeth extracted.
This article explains the signs of improper eruption, such as gum infections, dental crowding, jaw pain, and the development of cysts. In addition, the blog discusses how third molars influence neighboring teeth and your sinuses. Learning these indicators can help you make informed decisions about your oral health and help you seek surgical help as soon as you need it.
Chronic Jaw Pain and Aches
The most obvious sign of an erupting wisdom tooth is a constant dull ache in the back of your mouth. The tooth is trying to push through the thick gum tissue and the hard bone of your jaw, and it’s putting tremendous pressure on the surrounding areas. This is a painful sensation that will be felt along your jaw line, towards your ear, or down your neck.
If the tooth is growing in an incorrect direction, it forces the tooth directly against the sensitive roots of the adjacent healthy teeth. This force causes immediate, localized pain that intensifies with each bite. Pain medications available without a prescription can help ease the pain, but will not clear the blockage. The constant pressure causes the sensitive inferior alveolar nerve in your jawline to become inflamed. When this constant throbbing occurs, it means that the tooth is moving into the existing teeth and needs to be evaluated by a dentist.
Tender, Swollen, or Bleeding Gums
If a wisdom tooth only partially emerges through the surface of the gums, it leaves you open to a lot of trouble in your mouth. The excess gum tissue can form a small flap (called an operculum) that covers the exposed part of the partially erupted tooth. This soft tissue flap forms a dark, moist space that is a prime breeding ground for food to become lodged and for harmful oral bacteria to grow.
A normal toothbrush cannot reach under this small flap, allowing bacteria to grow quickly and lead to an aggressive gum infection known as pericoronitis. This condition makes the surrounding gums sensitive. The area bleeds easily when you floss. Below are the signs and symptoms to look out for to identify this painful infection:
- Severe redness and noticeable swelling directly over the back tooth
- A foul, metallic taste resulting from purulent exudate (pus) draining into the mouth
- Swollen and tender lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy) under the jaw or in your neck
- Severe pain that increases with pressure on the sore gum
Dental Crowding and Shifting Teeth
You might lack enough space in your jaw for an additional row of large teeth. While your wisdom teeth are pushing up, they are like a hard wedge trying to fit into an already full space. Although your wisdom teeth do not affect the crowding of the front teeth, the high pressure exerted in one small area can cause serious damage to the adjacent second molars.
Erupting teeth may come into direct contact with adjacent teeth, forming close, unhygienic spaces where bacteria can accumulate. This force can significantly affect your bite pattern (occlusion) in the back of your mouth, causing uneven wear of your enamel and localized bone loss. By removing the problematic teeth, you will stop this damaging pressure, which will help to keep your other molars healthy and maintain overall structural alignment.
Bad Breath and a Foul Taste in the Mouth
Persistent halitosis can come right from the hidden crevices around the impacted wisdom teeth. Maintaining proper hygiene around these teeth is extremely difficult every day because they are located at the back of your mouth. The deep pocket formed by an angled or partially erupted tooth is too deep for floss or toothbrushes to clean.
Consequently, food particles get stuck deep in these hard-to-reach areas. The bacteria break down this trapped food, producing strong sulfur compounds (volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs)) that produce foul odors. These compounds have a strong odor and cannot be masked for long with regular mouthwash. There might also be a lingering bitter or metallic taste on the tongue that won’t go away all day long.
A persistent bad taste indicates that bacteria are growing and that areas of decay are present. The sooner the infected tooth is removed, the more inaccessible bacteria are eliminated, and you can restore a fresh, odor-free mouth.
Recurrent Tooth Decay and Cavities
Cleaning misaligned wisdom teeth is difficult, making it much more likely that you will develop localized tooth decay (dental caries). The surface of a crooked back tooth is uneven. Plaque, a sticky film of harmful bacteria, quickly builds up on it. The bacteria feast on leftover sugars from your food and drinks and produce strong acids that attack your teeth’s protective enamel.
These teeth are not easily seen from the outside, so cavities can develop without being noticed until they extend into the sensitive inner layers of the teeth (the dentin). Moreover, the decay does not only affect the wisdom tooth. The small and unsanitary gap between the affected tooth and the healthy second molar holds the acid plaque firmly between both teeth.
This harmful process often compromises the second molar’s back surface, leading to extensive cavities, despite the tooth’s overall good condition. Removal of the problem tooth will end this vicious cycle, and your other teeth will be spared from the ravages of vicious decay.
Sinus Pressure and Headaches
Because your upper jawbone is so closely attached to your fragile nasal cavity, this can lead to a complex set of problems when you are having wisdom tooth pain. Your upper wisdom teeth have long roots that grow close to your hollow, air-filled maxillary sinuses located behind your cheekbones. If the tooth does not erupt at a proper angle, the tooth roots might be angled and exert a strong force against the thin sinus floor.
This tremendous upward pressure results in a marked, long-lasting swelling of the entire sinus cavity, which is exactly like the physical symptoms of a serious respiratory infection. You will feel heavy pressure behind your eyes, and also in the nose, and a sharp pain in the face will be felt constantly. The constant pressure on your sinus membrane also causes frequent radiating headaches that do not respond to any pain medication.
If you have sinus discomfort with pain in your rear teeth, the upper teeth are probably the culprit and should be surgically removed right away.
Formation of Cysts or Tumors
If a problematic wisdom tooth is completely trapped and buried in hard bone for an extended period of time, the thin developmental sac that surrounds the anatomical crown of the tooth is easily able to fill with excess body fluid. This creates a fluid-filled sac or cyst, which grows gradually within your gums, typically a dentigerous cyst. These fluid-filled cysts develop over months or years, so they don’t usually cause immediate physical pain.
But they silently work their way into your mouth and have a huge, harmful impact on your long-term oral health. The cyst will gradually increase in size, eroding the bone around it to a great extent and significantly reducing the density of your bone. This vigorous bone loss makes the entire jaw structure fragile and prone to spontaneous fractures when chewing.
Also, the ever-growing cyst puts tremendous and constant pressure on the fragile roots of adjacent teeth, leading to severe root damage (resorption) and permanent tooth mobility. An untreated cyst can, in rare cases, transform into a benign but aggressive dental tumor, for example, an ameloblastoma that necessitates a large amount of oral reconstruction.
Jaw Stiffness and Difficulty Opening the Mouth
If swelling is severe and coming from an actively infected wisdom tooth, it’s unlikely to remain just in the surrounding gum area. The infection spreads aggressively outward, deeply invading the potent muscles (masseter and temporalis) that function in your complicated jaw. These are the important chewing muscles, which, when they become inflamed, tighten violently against your will, causing pain.
This painful muscular reaction will directly cause a clinical condition called trismus (severe jaw stiffness), which will significantly restrict your normal functional range of motion. Opening your mouth wide enough to bite into an apple, chew your meals, or even speak clearly will be excruciatingly hard to do successfully. This extreme stiffness is felt throughout the day in the jaw joint (temporomandibular joint, or TMJ), causing a frustrating clicking sensation and a constant sense of fatigue.
If you try to open your limited mouth too wide, you will cause even more tiny muscle tears and increase the pain in the area. This condition is so debilitating that it is limiting normal movement, and it is a bad infection that requires immediate professional surgical extraction of the tooth.
The Long-Term Risks of Ignoring Problematic Third Molars
If you don’t take any action when impacted wisdom teeth are present, you will continue to face a barrage of severe, long-term dental problems. It is a common misconception that when you don’t have physical pain anymore, the problem has gone away. But an impacted tooth is a real ticking time bomb that’s embedded deep in the hard bone of your jaw.
Bacteria trapped in the gums can eventually cause serious gum disease (periodontitis) if you don’t take the early signs seriously. This serious infection can quickly attack the delicate soft tissue and underlying bone that keep your teeth in place, causing them to fall out. As harmful gum disease progresses, chronic inflammation significantly impacts your overall health and allows harmful oral bacteria to enter the bloodstream.
Also, if a tooth is out of alignment, it will always be subject to mechanical damage if it remains in its crowded mouth. When you have consistent, ongoing pressure and stress on your neighboring teeth, it can cause irreversible enamel wear and require complicated root canal treatments.
Understanding Wisdom Teeth and Impaction
You may wonder why you have wisdom teeth at all, given how many issues they cause. Your ancestors had to have a third set of molars, thousands of years ago, to chew up tough, raw roots and rough meats. Over time, people’s diets evolved. Humans began to prepare our food, making it easier to chew and softer. Jaws became smaller as people changed their diet.
Most people do not have enough room in their mouths for four extra-large teeth. When these teeth attempt to fit in a space that is too small, they become trapped. This is known as impaction.
An impacted tooth cannot erupt through the gums. Instead, it remains in the jawbone or protrudes just slightly out of the jaw. Based on standard radiographic classifications used in modern dentistry, depending on how much space you have, your wisdom teeth can grow in several wrong directions:
- Vertical impaction: The tooth forms in an upward direction but remains below the gum line.
- Horizontal impaction: The tooth grows completely sideways, pushing directly into the roots of the tooth next to it.
- Mesioangular impaction: The tooth grows at an angle towards the front of your mouth.
- Distoangular impaction: The tooth comes in at an angle towards the throat.
Call a General Dentist Near Me
The signs of impacted wisdom teeth can be serious and, if not treated early, can cause chronic gum infections, cysts, and permanent damage to your adjacent molars. The ideal way to maintain your structural alignment and protect your oral health is to have your teeth pulled on time. Do not wait for the symptoms to become worse if they do not seem to be going away. Early intervention avoids complex surgeries and a quicker recovery.
At The Hawthorne Dentist, we have a long history of providing comprehensive general and surgical dental care, and we are here to help patients achieve optimal oral health in Hawthorne, California. We use state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging to accurately and safely evaluate your third molars. Call our experienced staff today for an appointment and evaluation. Call us today at 310-775-2557 to schedule your private consultation.
