Fix Impacted Teeth

As you grow and your mouth transitions from your baby teeth to your adult permanent teeth, the baby teeth loosen, fall out, and then their replacements erupt through the gum line from below the bone. In some cases, the adult teeth do not settle into place in a straight, uniform fashion so that’s where orthodontic braces, Invisalign and retainers help. These treatments move the teeth into place and keep them in place to provide you an even bite and an evenly spaced appearance. In other cases, the adult teeth never come through the gums into place despite being fully developed below the jaw bone. These unerupted adult teeth are called impacted teeth.

Why Does Tooth Impaction Happen?

If you are someone who has been told by a dentist that you have impacted teeth after the dentist reviews your X-rays, your mouth may not have space for more teeth. If your jawbone can’t accommodate more teeth, then the tooth will remain where it developed. Depending on where your adult tooth rests, it may be a fully impacted tooth, one completely under the bone, or a partially impacted tooth, or a part of the tooth starts to erupt but the rest of the tooth fails to grow into place.

Teeth Lost In The Gums

Typically, people often hear that they have impacted teeth when they talk to the dentist about their wisdom teeth. These third set of molars do not have the space in the mouth, maybe misaligned or crooked, or they may even be facing the wrong direction entirely.
In other cases, people suffer from impacted upper canine teeth. Most often this problem runs in families and can affect one of both of the canines. The order that you lose your baby teeth and the order that your adult teeth come in can affect the spacing and room for the canines to erupt.

Symptoms And Complications Of Impacted Teeth

When you have an impacted tooth, you may not have any symptoms that the tooth is failing to erupt. Sometimes, the baby tooth may even fail to loosen or to fall out or both. The canine teeth are essential for a balanced smile, bite support, and bite structure. Their long roots help absorb the pressure from chewing and ensure the health of the surrounding teeth.

Outside of an imbalanced smile, impacted teeth can put pressure on the roots of the nearby teeth, move the existing teeth out of place, and even cause infections and cavities. If you think that you have an impacted tooth affecting your other teeth, you may experience pain, tenderness near the jawline, a developing gap, headaches, jaw aches, bad breath, bad taste in your mouth, swollen gums, or swollen lymph nodes.

Treatment: A Place For Every Tooth

While there is not much you can do to prevent an impacted tooth, you can talk to the dentist about the best treatment for your mouth. The dentist can recommend removing the tooth or to move the tooth into place with oral surgery and orthodontic realignment. After an X-ray, the dentist can help you determine what’s next for your impacted tooth.

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