Over time, this could make them more susceptible to cavities or other problems that require professional treatment. Your remaining teeth may also shift to fill the gaps created by the aforementioned extractions.
If a wisdom tooth becomes impacted, severely damaged, or a source of pain in your mouth, having a dentist or oral surgeon extract it may be a good idea. Yet, having your healthy wisdom teeth pulled out of your mouth – just because they require more effort to keep clean – is playing with fire.
Tooth extraction is not a risk-free process
While some dentists recommend removing wisdom teeth to free up room in your mouth or eliminate the possibility of these teeth causing problems later down the line, undergoing an extraction comes with serious risks of its own.
According to the National Institutes of Health, undergoing tooth extraction comes with the following potential hazards:
- Harm to neighboring teeth
- Oral nerve damage
- Bruising
- Facial swelling
- Gum infection
Undergoing these risks for severely damaged wisdom teeth makes sense. Taking them on just to extract healthy, functioning wisdom teeth does not.
