How Do I Know if My Teeth are Impacted

Impacted Teeth. That’s not necessarily something you want your Dentist to say after looking at a couple shots of your x-rays. Sitting in the Dentist’s chair, all you can see in your future is countless more dentist visits, possibly an oral surgeon consultation and appointment, and even maybe a surgery. An impacted tooth is a tooth that fails to breakout into the dental arch with the rest of the teeth in the mouth. The tooth then may become impacted because the lack of room, and the pressure against teeth next to it.

The most common form of impacted teeth is when your Wisdom Teeth decide to emerge! The wisdom teeth are the four of the 32 teeth in the mouth. Around the ages of 17 to 25 years old, the teeth in the back of your mouth begin to make their way down.When your wisdom teeth erupt, they’ll need room to place themselves in your mouth. The teeth become packed when there’s not enough room. There are different degrees of impacted wisdom teeth depending on where they lie in the jaw. Soft tissue impaction happens when the tooth emerges through the bone but cannot push its way through the gum. A partial bony impaction occurs when the bone erupts but it’s still submerged in the jaw bone. A complete bony impaction occurs when the tooth fails to emerge completely and lies encased in the jaw bone.

Some symptoms of teeth impaction can include:

  • Red or swollen gums
  • Tender or bleeding gums
  • Swelling or jaw pain
  • Bad Breathe
  • Difficulty opening and closing your mouth or chewing
  • An unpleasant taste

If you feel as though you may have an impacted tooth or teeth, it’s important to see your Dentist to have x-rays done. In some cases, you will not show symptoms of teeth impaction. Your dentist will need to address the issue and determine whether or not to diagnose you with impacted teeth to seek further treatments. Frequent dental checkups are a great source to catching teeth impaction early. Dentist Offices such as our Triangle Pediatric Dentistry in Wake Forest, NC offer an array of services, including quick and easy appointment scheduling for dental exams.