WARNING: The Hidden Dangers of Getting Wisdom Teeth Pulled

Why Wisdom Tooth Removal Matters 0:00

Do you think wisdom tooth removal is just a rite of passage? Well, think again, what you don't know could impact your health for life. Wisdom tooth removal can end up with nerve damage in the jaw and in the face. It can lead to areas in the jawbone that don't heal properly, which can then lead to chronic disease and illness. So stick around while we talk about the things that your dentist might not know, but that you need to know to ask about before you say yes to surgery. First question I often hear is, why do I even need to get my wisdom teeth out to begin with?

Is this something we have to do? Well, this all goes back to growth and development and really the way that the jaws formed and the face formed early in life, in early years, but particularly in teenage years. Interestingly enough, the first bone that's affected by malnutrition in the body is your top jaw. And if malnutrition is present, and this isn't just, I didn't have enough food, this also may be that the food we're eating today doesn't have as many

Why Wisdom Teeth Often Donu2019t Fit 1:00

nutrients as it used to. What that leads to is small top jaw development. Well, the way the teeth arrange, the bottom jaw fits inside of the top jaw. So if the top jaw is smaller, the bottom jaw is going to be as well. This leads to all sorts of other dental issues like crowded teeth and breathing and airway problems. But also it leads to there not being enough room for all 32 teeth to fit. Interestingly enough, if you look back in history and look at skulls of people who had died hundreds of years ago, you'll see that they had all 32 teeth in their mouths and they were straight.

They fit. So today, because of habits and things that we do with pacifiers and sippy cups and all those sorts of things that have really been introduced in our modern age, along with the nutrient deficiencies that we're finding in our foods, Everybody ends up with crooked teeth, small mouths, and no room for wisdom teeth. So the first question again, do I really need them out? The answer is if there's no space, which we're seeing is happening more and more frequently. Why does this matter? Well, the wisdom teeth often, if there's not enough space, will come in sideways.

So that leads to an impacted tooth. What that simply means is that it never completely comes into the mouth, which leads to potential for bacteria slipping behind the back molar and getting underneath that gum and underneath that impacted wisdom tooth. Why is that a problem? Because those are areas that simply are not cleanable. So now you could actually have decay in those wisdom teeth, but oftentimes you get infection in the gum and even potentially in the bone around those teeth. So the biggest issue is that the longer the teeth stay in the mouth, the longer the tooth becomes.

the roots of the tooth actually continue growing until you're sometimes in mid-20s or so.

Impacted Teeth and Infection Risk 2:50

So the tooth is smaller and easier to remove when you're in your teen years. This is why this is the rite of passage during teen year times because the roots haven't completely formed. The teeth are smaller and there's less risk for injury in the area. That's why we like to do a screening during teenage years to say, is there going to be room for the teeth to come in? If there is not, we prefer and recommend having them removed while the teeth are smaller and there's going to be less risk for injury of the nerves in the area.

because let's say you go through that screening and everything's fine or you don't have the screening done at all and you're in your mid 30s and now you get a real bad infection in the jawbone and the gum around that area and now you need to get the tooth out. Well, Now the root is long and there are nerves that pass through this portion of the jawbone that are very important. They feed everything that goes on in this side of the face. So those roots are often wrapped right around that nerve and removing the tooth could lead to damage of that nerve permanently.

This is not what we want. So a screening early on in teenage years is essential to say, is there going to be room for the teeth? If the answer is no, then we do recommend getting them out. And I'm gonna tell you what to ask for if that's the situation.

Why Earlier Removal Is Safer 4:10

If the answer is yes, then we leave them alone. We let them be and let them come into the mouth. Now, are there things that we can do to help make more space in the mouth while the mouth is growing? Absolutely. We call this Interceptive Orthodontics, where we're intercepting the growth pattern and saying, let's make more space now while we can while the growing is still happening. So that is absolutely possible and we do that all the time here in our dental practice to direct the growth of the mouth to make enough space so that there is room for the wisdom teeth to come in.

That's absolutely my preference. So let's talk about the risks of removal. The risks are first of all that nerve damage that I talked about and it can happen even early on. So if there is room for the wisdom teeth I prefer leave them alone and completely eliminate that risk. However, if there isn't room for that tooth to come in then I do recommend the tooth be removed and the earlier it can happen the better because the less risk for that nerve damage to happen. The second thing that can happen is the area where the tooth comes out of doesn't necessarily heal on its own.

There's a ligament surrounding every single tooth in the jaw, and when the tooth is removed, the ligament doesn't automatically come with it. It actually has to be intentionally removed. Well, if the ligament doesn't get removed, the body doesn't realize that the tooth has been removed for about 10 days or so. This is supported by research. In those 10 days, the skin heals over the spot. Think about how long it takes you for a cut to heal on your finger. about 10 days time. So the skin heals over the gums heal over and they fill the area the bone should fill in.

You have the dead ligament surrounded by this gum tissue and it stays like that with a dead zone in the jawbone because the bone hasn't initiated healing

Nerve Damage and Poor Healing Risks 6:00

at that point. How do we identify these? We find these on a cone beam CT scan. What we're looking for is density of bone. The jaw bone in this area should be completely healed. The bone should look like surrounding bone within 6 to 12 months after the tooth has been removed. If there is less dense bone in that area, that's an indicator that the area did not heal properly. Why does it matter? Well, there's something called tooth meridians and every single tooth in the body is connected to different organ systems.

This is an energetic connection, meaning it's literally the wiring that happens in the body and allows every system to be powered up and to be strong and work like it should. Well, if there's a short on that electrical wiring line, it will affect everything else on that line. These wisdom teeth are connected to the endocrine system. So that's going to be all of your energy systems, the thyroid, the adrenals, as well as sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, all those kinds of things.

It's also connected to the stomach and to the heart. So what happens is if you have an unhealed dead area in these areas, it will create a short. In that line, what can this show up as? Well, the symptoms you look for after surgery or even years down the road are things related to those systems. So you might feel fatigue. You might just feel like no matter what, you don't have the energy you need to get through your day. You just feel kind of blah even. You might struggle with hormones and even infertility issues.

And a big one that I see is heart issues, everything from high blood pressure to cholesterol impacts. So these are the things to look for after surgery. People will say, well, nothing hurts here. And it usually doesn't because a dead area doesn't hurt. You won't feel it. So there's no local symptoms that can really help you pinpoint this is going on.

Hidden Jawbone Cavities and Systemic Symptoms 7:50

It's the systemic symptoms that you need to be paying attention to. If you've had your wisdom teeth out and you have the symptoms I described, it might be worth looking and doing a cone beam CT scan and saying, did this actually heal properly? One patient that was really poignant to me that had this exact situation is a woman who had really bad eczema. I mean, I'm talking over 90% of her body and she had tried everything to get rid of it. And I heard the end of her story from a family member who was coming in for a new patient appointment.

And he said, you need to know what happened to my sister-in-law after you cleaned out those wisdom tooth areas. He said, the eczema is nearly gone. She has a patch or two here or there, and that's it. And he asked me the same question that you might be wondering too. How does this relate? Well, when you have inflammation in these areas and it's not always infection, sometimes it's just inflammation. It's a dead zone and the body doesn't like anything dead. So it sends up these signals that says problems, problems, problems.

And like I said, it short circuits a lot of the other things going on in the body. So this inflammation affects the body's ability to deal with other things. So her inability to deal with inflammation was leading to massive skin breakouts. So it's not that the unhealed areas of the wisdom teeth led to eczema, it led to inflammation, which may show up in a lot of different areas in your body as well. So again, these are the things to pay attention to. So if you've already had them removed, I recommend a cone beam CT scan to see, do you have these unhealed areas in your jawbone?

Is that something you need to address? And if so, we actually go in and clean those out. We open them up, we clean out that dead tissue, we disinfect it really well, and then we fill it up with your own stem cells and growth factors so it finally heals. So if you do not have them out already, you're wondering, what do I ask a doctor about this? How do I know? The first question is, do I have room for these teeth in my mouth? And if the answer is yes, leave them alone. That's the first question. If the answer is no, then you say, okay, there's some things that I would like done at that removal appointment.

What to Ask Before Surgery 10:10

Can you please remove that ligament? Do you have stem cells and growth factors? It's called PRF. Do you have those that you can place in that area after healing or during the surgery? Can you put that in to help support the healing of the area? And then we always like to recommend things like IV vitamin C and IV homeopathics that also support the healing of the area. These are the things to ask before you're getting the teeth out. So why does this matter? Well, the big thing is that there really is a lack of understanding about how the decisions you're making in your mouth affect your overall health.

This is your health and this is your body. If you are struggling with some of the symptoms I've described, fatigue, energy issues, hormonal problems, high blood pressure, you really need to get a cone beam CT scan to find out if this is something that you have going on. And please share this video if you have someone also that is suffering from some of these symptoms. It is so important to be an advocate for your own health. to have all the information you need to be able to make the best decision for you.

If you are looking for a dentist that can provide this kind of care, please go to the directory at livingwellwithdrmichelle.com and find a dentist there who is thinking this way and thinking about how to make room for wisdom teeth to really assess whether there is room or not or remove them properly if there isn't enough room. Thank you for watching and hopefully this has given you some information that will empower you to live well.