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Wisdom tooth falling apart

G

Guest

Former Member
Greetings once again,

I've posted here before, but I now have a somewhat new question.

My lower left wisdom tooth (#17), is in decay and ever so slowly falling apart. It is also impacted against the neighboring tooth (though for the most part the wisdom tooth is erupted - its just turned a bit on its side).

If I get this removed (which I should but am not looking forward to doing, given my needle fear that I am trying to overcome)...there is a good chance the crown will break into pieces off the root during extraction before the root is removed. If this happens, will it be difficult to remove the root? What might then be involved? I am hoping I can get some idea as to what I might have to expect from this procedure.

Thanks.

- S.
Portland, OR - USA
 
Hi Sean,

Sounds like you're in a similar situation as me (and Greg in the referenced thread).

I wondered this myself -- if it will just crumble when they attempt to grab my 1 broken tooth with whatever dentists grab wisdom teeth with.

Given that I now know of two people with the similar-sounding situations, I'm guessing it can't be too uncommon, but I'd be interested in knowing as well. Dentists?
 
It doesn't make much difference what state the crown part of the tooth is in, in some cases if the crown is broken down and rotted to the roots it actually makes things easier.
Us dentists don't actually "grab hold" of the crown of the tooth when we extract it, we actually exert fairly carefully directed force onto the roots. If you try to yank out a tooth by holding the crown it will snap off. I've seen this happen loads of times when people try a DIY extraction ;D
 
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