Unfortunately, the pain and discomfort felt from teething does not confine itself to your childhood, and for some people, their wisdom teeth can come through in their twenties, thirties, and even forties.
If you are part of the ninety percent of people in the United States who have wisdom teeth, and if you are still suffering with one or more of the deep-rooted nuisances, then this article is definitely for you.
Continue reading to find out how to cope with wisdom tooth pain 101!
Reasons for the Pain
Third molars, more commonly described as wisdom teeth, are always the last teeth to come through, and therefore, your mouth already boasts a full set of adult teeth, meaning there is no room for them to grow with no extra pain.
Usually, unless you are incredibly fortunate, the wisdom tooth will grow at an angle and only partially be visible in your mouth, known as impacted wisdom teeth. Impacted wisdom teeth can cause unbearable pain and also leave your mouth and gums more open to bacterial infections and other problems.
What Can You Do?
One of the most basic but temporarily effective ways to relieve the pain of impacted wisdom teeth is to swill your mouth with salt water and hold the solution over your gum with your tongue before spitting it out. For adults, you can also try this with whiskey, too, which can numb the area to provide temporary relief (you do not necessarily have to spit this out afterward, of course).
Other widely known ways to naturally relieve the intense and debilitating pain from wisdom teeth include:
- The application of an ice pack to the outside of the jaw
- Anti-inflammatory over-the-counter pain relief
- A pea-sized amount of dental numbing gel on the gum around the tooth
- Clove oil on a ball of cotton wool over the tooth itself
It is also worth noting that, although proven to be effective for a lot of people, clove oil tastes incredibly unpleasant, whereas numbing dental gel does not.
Should You Have Your Wisdom Tooth Out?
Now, for most people with an impacted wisdom tooth, the best solution, having tried other methods of coping with and even eradicating the pain, is to have the tooth taken out by a dentist.
You will first be given a local anesthetic in the gum, and an incision will be made (unless the tooth has broken through enough for your dentist to accurately grab it) before the tooth is rocked back and forth to widen the incision.
When experiencing what you think to be wisdom tooth pain, even if the discomfort is not what you would call severe and is sporadic rather than constant, it is strongly advised to contact a dental practice, such as bafdentistry.com, and make an appointment with your dentist.
Unfortunately, specifically, if it is your top wisdom teeth that are causing the pain, it may well be a significant risk to choose to have them out, as this has been known to cause permanent nerve damage to the face.