Inside of cheek growing over gums...

[Majin_Koenma]

Hello again all,

I haven't been here much lately because the dental phobia has been more or less under control lately. But now I have yet another dentistry question, and I'm hoping someone here can help me figure out what is going on. I'm not even sure how to describe this, but here it goes.

For the last few days something has been irritating me on the lower left corner of my mouth. I thought that it was just from me hitting the inside of my cheek with my toothbrush, and thought nothing of it. But when the irritation didn't go away after a few days I decided to see what was going on. I felt around in there and the best way I know of how to describe this is that it feels to me like the skin on the inside of my cheek has grown over part of my gums. My mother looked at it with a flash light and said that everything looked normal, but it sure doesn't feel normal to me. What could be causing this, and is it something to worry about? How would a dentist even go about treating something like this?

 

[Gordon]

Could it be that there's an erupting wisdom tooth down there? That can look similar to what you're describing. The treatment is either removing the wisdom teeth or waiting until it erupts fully...

 

[Majin_Koenma]

Thanks for the reply, Gordon. I had my wisdom teeth removed back in August 2005 but one of them has magically reappeared in the upper left part of my mouth, so it wouldn't at all surprise me if a second one came back as well.


EDIT-I forgot to mention that the tooth is trying to erupt into a socket that already has a tooth in it. Does anyone know what if anything should be done about this?

 

[Gordon]

Some fortunate people (!) have 4th molars, in other words 2 sets of wisdom teeth. You could be one of the lucky ones.

I don't quite understand your question in the second paragraph, could you rephrase it for me?

 

[Majin_Koenma]

Some fortunate people (!) have 4th molars, in other words 2 sets of wisdom teeth. You could be one of the lucky ones.

I don't quite understand your question in the second paragraph, could you rephrase it for me?

Sure Gordon, sorry if I was a little unclear. What I mean is that I can feel the wisdom tooth erupting under in the gums under an already existing tooth, in otherwords it is trying to erupt into a scoket that is already occupied. Hope that clears it up.

 

[Gordon]

Yes thanks. You would need an x-ray to really find out what's going on. Time for a trip back to the dentist I'm afraid.

 

[Majin_Koenma]

Yes thanks. You would need an x-ray to really find out what's going on. Time for a trip back to the dentist I'm afraid.

Thanks, Gordon. I figured I would have to go back to the dentist for this. I have a feeling I might eventually need another extraction, but I'll be OK as long as it isn't cancer or something horrible like that. Now I just have to force myself to make the appointment...