Impacted Wisdom Teeth

What is an impacted tooth?

Even though most people grow 32 permanent adult teeth, most of the time, overcrowding of the jaws occurs to allow the four wisdom teeth in. When insufficient space hinders the teeth from erupting, they are called impacted wisdom teeth. This indicates their inability to erupt into the appropriate place for cleaning and chewing.

A diagram half mouth X-ray with teeth impaction and half digital graphic highlighting impacted teeth

Types Of Impactions

We will have to make an appointment with you to decide if wisdom tooth removal will be of benefit to you. We will take a unique kind of x-ray of the mouth and jaws (panorex) to determine if there is an impaction of your wisdom teeth, if there is space for the eruption of the teeth, and how challenging it will be to remove them.

  • Soft Tissue Impaction:

    here is not adequate space to enable the gum tissue to retract for easy cleaning of the tooth.

  • Partial Bony Impaction:

    There is adequate space for the wisdom tooth to erupt partially. Although, the tooth cannot chew well, may have cleaning issues, etc.

  • Complete Bony Impaction:

    The tooth cannot erupt due to a lack of space. It stays embedded in the jaw bone, or if it appears partially visible needs complex surgical procedures to remove it. The impacted wisdom tooth could also be found in an uncommon location and hard to extract. This issue can occur when the size or shape of the jaw bone, as well as other facial structures, make extraction of this tooth increasingly more difficult.

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A representation of a wisdom tooth impacted by soft tissueSoft Tissue
An example of a wisdom tooth with a partial bony impactionPartial Bony
An illustration of a wisdom tooth completely impacted by boneComplete Bony