I have my wisdom tooth for years, never gave me much problems other than occasional infection of the gums (very rare) which can be fixed with direct concentrated salt with cotton bud or listerine solution.

It doesn't break out of the gums completely, but luckily no impact to other teeth, so it grew up vertically from lower jaw.


Upper jaw, no wisdom tooth, only bottom 2.

One side is more prone to infection than the other, but both has no decay but stains (remineralization from fluoride)

After brushing teeth, I use cotton buds with concentrated fluoride or salt to clean whatever visible/reachable wisdom tooth i have.

It's the smelliest tooth in there but as long I keep them cleaned individually (after brushing), there're no risks of infection.

I wonder if I could stop doing this after I get an operculectomy where my gums are sliced away to reveal the rest of the wisdom tooth ?

I really don't want them to be removed, and would prefer to get rid of the gums that covered them instead.

This post has been edited by Perseus: Apr 12 2009, 12:50 AM

if it was me, id think in terms of costs.. how much does a operculectomy costs ? if in the region of 300-400 id rather extract the tooth.. since its the first tooth that will decay later in life anyways (well, not in your case though, since you take care of it so much)..

btw, i have the same problem as you.. bottom left one is stubborn as hell.. it doesnt want to run the final 100m..

visit a government clinic.
The treatment should be free or cost almost nothing.
The 3rd molar or wisdom teeth are functionally almost useless.
Many times, it only causes more problems.
Impaction, carious (coz difficult to reach with normal toothbrush)

U have to remove the operculum or food will get stuck underneath it & overtime will cause caries.

As your upper wisdom teeth are missing, u don't have the problem of traumatizing the operculum where u bite on it = painful.

I'm not sure if i want to extract the teeth or not.
I don't have all 4 wisdom teeth.
Congenitally missing. Luckily
Up to u.

Lucky you but becareful, your missing wisdom tooth is a stamp for potential ovarian cancer candidate in genes.

I have 2 testicles but i don't think i have any ovaries

This is the 1st time i heard of the link between missing wisdom tooth & ovarian cancer.
Mind giving any links to support that?

OOps, sorry thought you're a girl, anyway here's the link


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypodontia


The Journal of the American Dental Association published preliminary data suggesting a statistical association between hypodontia of the permanent teeth and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). The study shows that women with EOC are 8.1 times more likely to have hypodontia than are women without EOC. The suggestion therefore is that hypodontia can serve as a "marker" for potential risk of EOC in women. (Journal of the American Dental Association, vol. 139, p. 163)

Better go and see a dentist. If the wisdom tooth is causing gum problems, better remove it else you might end up with gum disease

In the US, believe it or not, medical insurance companies usually require all 4 wisdom teeth to be extracted out, even before they pop up. My sister had to do it as well. Did it under GA. Porridge for a week. >.>

erm..where did she did it under GA?
Extraction of the 4 wisdom teeth?
I'm guessing private.
In Malaysia?

USA have all kind of weird stuff there

Yeah, that the US have. The medical insurance policies there are very different from here. You have to have an insurance their else seeing even a normal GP is going to be expensive (USD100 per visit). So most of them don't see the doctor as regularly as we do.

The insurance companies there also weight the risks of various health problems. So, in the case of the wisdom too, they decided that it's better just to have all 4 extracted out in majority of the population.

She had it done in US, not here. The medical insurance company paid for it.

If I were you, I would speak to a lot of ppl in RL to get feedback. For costs, just open the yellow pages and start calling out the dentists and find out.

So Perseus, have you decided to get them removed or live with them?

They're not giving me any problems so far, and I clean as much as I can, but I am more worried when they start giving me problems after I am 'senior' citizen age which would make extraction and healing more complicated.


So many risks... and some said to leave it alone if it's not causing me any problems.

I would say just make a decision and stick with it.

If it's not the right decision and something bad happens to it later on, then just deal with it then.

I guess try not to worry too much, Perseus. Bad decisions will happen and we just have to live with and deal with it.