Not everyone has to get their wisdom teeth removed but the majority of people simply do not have room for their wisdom teeth to grow in straight and assume a healthy position in their mouth. If they can’t grow in all the way, there is a gum flap that tends to trap food and bacteria. This area is highly prone to infection, and due to the poor blood supply in the area, the infections can get nasty.

Many people with impacted wisdom teeth – wisdom teeth that have no room to grown in all the way experience chronic infections. It doesn’t necessarily get serious, but it doesn’t get better either. If they sometimes bother you, it is very likely that they are infected and should be removed before a serious infection develops.

If your wisdom teeth hurt, the best thing to do is to seek professional care. If you just take pain medicine, the infection can worsen and get out of control, causing severe pain and swelling. Until you can get to a dentist, you can use warm salt water rinses of 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 8 ounces of water. Rinse every hour or two until the symptoms get a lot better and get professional help.

To make wisdom tooth extraction easier, don’t wait for them to get really infected. At the first sign that they are impacted or could become problematic, schedule a time to remove them. In addition, take extra vitamins and minerals to enhance healing. This can be started 1 – 2 weeks prior to surgery. And lastly, make sure the dentist is experienced in wisdom tooth extractions.

Faster healing depends on following the doctors instructions of rest after the surgery, using ice on the outside of your jaw, keeping pressure with gauze on the extraction site and keeping your head elevated. In addition, extra vitamins and minerals will aid the body to repair the surgical site.

Stitches or sutures after wisdom teeth extractions are often used to securely position the tissues to speed up post extraction healing. Sometimes they are not needed, so it depends on your individual situation.

After a tooth is extracted a blood clot forms in the socket. Then, over the next several weeks and months, the new gum and bone grows into the blood clot and replaces the blood clot. If the blood clot dissolves prematurely, the extraction socket is left empty, so it is called a dry socket. This leaves the bone uncovered and can be quite painful. This is not an infection so antibiotics are rarely needed.

A dry socket, if it occurs is treated to keep the interior walls of the tooth extraction site, under the gum line, covered to take away the pain. Once the blood clot breaks down, there is nothing that can be done except to place medicine in the extraction site until it starts to heal on its own. Some people might need this done once and others might need it done every day or two for a week or more along with appropriate medicine for pain. Although it is quite uncomfortable, it almost always heals uneventfully.