Fig.2	Fig.3
Fig.1	Fig.4	Fig.5

Dental Education Lecture: Safely Remove Wisdom Teeth

People are afraid of wisdom tooth extraction because of pain associated with it. 

However, the dentist can remove wisdom teeth safely and without too much injury.

Today we are going to take out two wisdom teeth: one on the top (#16) and the other on the bottom (#17 in Fig.1).  The tooth #16 is relatively small and difficult to clean.  The tooth #17 is side-way and embedded underneath its neighboring tooth #18.  Anyway, both of the wisdom teeth need to be extracted.

Extraction of #16 is relatively easy (Fig.2), but the doctor should be careful about its tinny tiny root tip, which is easily broken.  Removal of the bottom wisdom tooth (#17 in Fig.1) requires special strategy.  We need to cut and split the tooth into two half, as indicated by a line in Fig.3.  The 1st part is removed first to reduce resistance for removal of the 2nd part (Fig.4).  Fig.5 shows the 2nd part after removal.  This tooth also has tilted root tip. 

With good planning and refined techniques, your extraction should not be terrible.

Xin Wei, DDS, PhD, MS 1st edition 12/05/2009, last revision 05/30/2010