My wisdom teeth were coming in fine but my dentist said we should keep an eye on them. I’m in college now and they’ve been really hurting. One of them seems swollen. Is this a big deal? Should I see an emergency dentist? I won’t be home from school until this summer, unless I can squeeze in a quick trip over spring break, but I don’t want to miss too much work.
Jennie
Dear Jennie,
If it were just a matter of your wisdom teeth becoming uncomfortable, I would say that you could wait until the summer. However, you’re talking about pain and swelling. This leads me to think you’re dealing with an infection at the wisdom tooth site. It’s possible that could wait until this summer, but I wouldn’t risk it. That could blow up quickly.
There are emergency dentists who will see non-established patients on the same day they call. You need to call an office and let them know what is going on. They’ll likely get you in rather quickly. If the tooth infection can be dealt with easily they’ll probably try to take care of it. At the least, they’ll give you some antibiotics and then refer you to an oral surgeon, or schedule a further appointment with you to extract the wisdom tooth themselves if that’s a procedure they routinely do.
Sedation Dentistry with Emergency Dental Appointments
This is a significant procedure. I wouldn’t do it simply with a local anesthetic. You’ll need something like oral conscious sedation. That requires someone to drive you to and from the appointment as well as stay with you throughout the day. This is because you’ll be quite loopy and unsteady on your feet.
If I were your parent, I’d want to be there with you. Even though you can’t easily get home, I bet at least one of your parents can get there to see you.
I have to say, I love seeing college students taking responsibility for their oral health. I’m assuming you visit your dentist when you’re home. If it’s getting harder and harder for you to get home because of work responsibilities, it’s probably time for you to find a good dentist near your school. This way you have someone regularly looking out for your oral health.
If you decide it’s best to remove your wisdom tooth, it may be in your best benefit to remove all of them at the same time. The best time to remove wisdom teeth is when the roots are almost (but not completely) developed. The older you get, the more risks there are to wisdom tooth removal. As you may be doing the procedure anyway, this may be the ideal time to get it all done at once.
Best of luck to you and definitely get this looked at. Infections spread.
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