Have you been wondering if you should have your wisdom teeth extracted? Have you been told that it?s time to have them removed? Maybe you?re afraid of the procedure itself or you?re thinking that you may be a little too old to have your wisdom teeth extracted.
Well, I want to shed some light on whether or not you?re too old to have your wisdom teeth extracted as well as things you need to know before you decide to move forward with the procedure.
The first thing that you should know is that there is no real age set in stone that you should have your wisdom teeth extracted. While yes, it?s recommended that you have your wisdom teeth removed between the ages of 18-24 years old, it?s not always the case for some people. For a variety of reasons people may wait until they?re older to have their wisdom teeth extracted, if they have them removed at all.
So, even if you missed the boat on getting your wisdom teeth extracted during your earlier years there?s no reason why you are not able to get them extracted now if they are bothering you or causing an issue that your healthcare professional thinks is enough for you to have them extracted as this point.
If you decide to go through with having your wisdom teeth extracted, there are some things that you want to keep in mind when you move forward:
Nerve Injury: the longer that your wisdom teeth are there, they grow closer and closer to your nerves and because of this there is a risk that during your procedure you may experience some nerve damage during the process. This could lead to other complications and increase your recovery time as well. Make sure to talk to your doctor about these risks prior to having the procedure done!
Longer Recovery Time: as we get older our body doesn?t recover from procedures and injuries as they once did. This means that how your body may have healed from this procedure in your earlier years is not necessarily how it will heal now that you?re older. This is something that you need to factor in when scheduling your procedure. It?s going to be important to make sure that you give yourself adequate time to recover and don?t get to hasty in scheduling things that need to get done during this time as you may not bounce back as quickly as you think. ?Although the downtime for this procedure is usually only 1-2 weeks, if there are complications, then you’re downtime may be slightly longer.
Additional Tips:
Talk to your doctor about icing the areas where the extractions were complete. ?This will help dramatically reduce the swelling!
Follow post op instructions!!! This is so important because you want to make sure to reduce the risk of infection, or other post op complications such as dry socket!
If you?ve been experiencing pain or it has been recommended that you have your wisdom teeth extracted, it is something that you should seriously consider making happen in the near future. Even with the slight chance of the issues that may arise during your procedure, in most cases the good far outweigh the bad due to the more severe complications that can come from leaving your wisdom teeth in place.
