Wisdom Tooth Impaction

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Wisdom Tooth Impaction

Usually in the age of late teens or early twenties people experience the molars in their mouth which are called the wisdom teeth. Molars are large chewing teeth in the back of mouth and the 3^rd molars are wisdom teeth. Even some people experience eruption of wisdom teeth in the later age.

There are mainly four positions of the wisdom teeth that are upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right means the person could have four wisdom teeth. Most of the people have less than 4 wisdom teeth due to some genetic reasons also.

Even some do not have much space for these teeth. In that case wisdom teeth do not align properly or sometime not fully erupt. In dental terminology tooth that could not erupt properly is called impacted tooth.

Wisdom tooth impaction occurs due to following reasons

Lack of sufficient room in jaw for tooth accommodation
Obstruction by other tooth

Improper angulations

cosmetic

Types of impactions

There can be following types of impactions based on the positioning of wisdom teeth.

Mesial

In this impacted tooth is angled forward towards the front of mouth and it is quite common postioning of wisdom tooth impaction.

Distal

It is also known as Disto angular impaction. In this type impacted tooth has postion directed towards the rear of the mouth.

Vertical

The impactions that have normal orientation are called vertical wisdom tooth impaction

Horizontal

These are also called traverse impactions and these have positioning where the tooth is lying on its own side.

Soft tissue

In this impaction crown of wisdom tooth penetrates through the bone but does not fully erupt through the gum tissue

Bony or hard tissue

In this impaction tooth lies within the jawbone on the basis of eruption this kind of impaction can be divided in two types fully or partial bony impaction.

Causes for wisdom tooth impaction

Wisdom teeth impactions are more likely to occur in the lower side than upper. 65-70% persons generally have these impactions. It is important to know the reasons of these impactions so following are some general reason for this problem

Most common cause for this impaction is inadequate space in the jawbone behind the second molar due to large tooth size or tooth crowding.
Sometime it can occur due to missing or broken tooth as after the broken tooth it has tendency to shift forward
Even studies have also make responsible to the diet changes for the impaction as due to chewing of soft food jaw activities are less so the tooth could not make space and erupt properly

Wisdom Tooth Impaction