How Serious is an Impacted Tooth?
If you have or have ever had an impacted tooth, you’re probably aware of how painful they can be. What you might not know, however, is that impacted teeth can lead to complicated side effects that could dramatically affect your overall health and well-being. If you notice any signs of an impacted tooth, seeing your dentist as soon as possible can help spare you from the unpleasant, or even devastating, side effects that can come with tooth impaction and set you back on the road to oral health. In some cases, an impacted tooth won’t cause any issues in the long term and may be able to remain in place in the mouth, though the teeth should be monitored consistently with routine dental checkups to ensure that no problems have begun to develop and to treat any complications that have appeared.
A tooth that is impacted is a tooth that has not properly erupted into the oral cavity. The wisdom teeth, or third molars, are the teeth that most commonly become impacted, though any tooth can be impacted if it doesn’t emerge into the proper position in the mouth. Using dental x-rays, dentists can determine which teeth might be impacted or become impacted, often before any complications or side effects develop. Some of the more common symptoms of an impacted tooth include redness and swelling in the gums, bleeding from the gums, a bad taste or smell in the mouth, and pain or discomfort in the jaw that might radiate to the head, face, or neck. If you notice any of these symptoms, see your dentist as soon as you can. Impacted teeth can easily become infected, and infection in the teeth can spread, possibly even entering the brain or bloodstream and leading to life-threatening conditions. While rare, these infections can cause permanent damage or even death and should be avoided at all costs.
Most of the time, your dentist will recommend removing an impacted tooth, eliminating uncomfortable side effects and significantly reducing the risk of infection. If infection is already present, your dentist will also treat the infection while extracting the tooth, possibly using antibiotics to eradicate systemic infection before safely removing the tooth. While some impacted teeth cause no symptoms or complications, professional evaluation and monitoring is vital to ensuring that this remains true and that treatment can commence promptly if complications do arise.
At your routine dental checkups, your dentist can assess whether your impacted tooth is poised to lead to crowding or otherwise affect the rest of your teeth and can determine whether removing impacted teeth is the best preventative measure. This is just one of the reasons regular dental checkups are so important. If you have an impacted tooth that begins to show symptoms of dysfunction, or if you notice symptoms and suspect you have an impacted tooth that may be infected, call your dentist to schedule treatment. While some impacted teeth aren’t considered serious health risks, only a dentist can evaluate the seriousness of an impacted tooth, and only a dentist can treat impacted teeth and prevent potentially serious conditions and complications from arising.