Hi Thomas,
Regarding the removal of the impacted wisdom tooth.... this is not done from the outside of the face. What is meant by the term "outside of the jaw" is when the tooth is in a location where the surgeon has to enter the area from the side of the jaw bone (inside of your mouth) rather than from the top or biting surface of the bone. Just so you are aware, this is not an unusual type of surgery for impacted wisdom teeth and a lot of people have a narrow or thin jaw bone. Your age is a factor as well as the fragility of your jaw bone. But not as much as your health and medication status, whatever they may be. Another factor that would be taken in to consideration is if there is infection and how widespread it is. All of these things are commonly handled in oral surgery practices.
This surgery will most likely be expensive. However, it would be best to consult with an oral surgeon who is in private practice rather than go to a dental school because the treatment and after care will be more thorough from a private practitioner. It is imperative to inform the surgeon about ALL of your health conditions, ALL pharmaceutical and over the counter drugs that you use, as well as any supplements or herbs that you take.
It is understandable to be concerned and even fearful of having this oral surgery. But keep in mind it is not an unusual surgery. It is imperative to seek a very highly reputable oral surgeon, even one who has dual degrees in both dentistry (DMD or DDS) and an MD. This does not mean the surgery will be more expensive with someone like that it just means they have extensive education in both the dental aspect and the systemic aspect of the procedure. You can speak to your general dentist about a referral to such a surgeon as he/she may know of one to send you to.
No one can predict the post operative outcome pertaining to the fragility of your jaw bone. It is not uncommon for the jaw bone to fracture during a wisdom tooth extraction and heal on it's own just fine. Every case is dependent upon the individual circumstances.
It would behoove you to have a comprehensive consultation with an oral surgeon that would include the necessary xrays and possibly a 3D dental scan to show different views of that area that are not normally picked up on 2 Dimensional dental xrays. It's important to openly discuss your tooth problem and the surgical intervention to remove it in detail so you have an idea of the reality of what it's all about. This will actually calm some of your fears and at the same time let the surgeon know that you have concerns about what the post operative health of jaw bone will be. You need to feel comfortable in his care and feel that he is taking all of your concerns seriously.
This is up to you .... if you are comfortable sharing some neighboring areas that you would travel to for the oral surgeon, you can do that here or send me a personal message and I can do a google search for a surgeon who has a dual degree. Unless I know them personally, I cannot vouch for their competency but it still may help you to find someone.
Bryanna
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas J.
As the title states I'm a 67yr old senior and I've been told many yrs ago and of course even lately that I have an empacted wisdom tooth but because my jaw bone on the x ray shows to be very thin, most doctors said to leave it alone. One oral surgeon told me that if he were to remove it most likely my jaw bone would crack and he would have to have me transported to a hospital where he would have to extract it from the outside of my jaw. Well this scared me enough to just forget about it at the time but now I'm feeling pain, sensitivity, heachaches , discomfort around the ear on that side of my mouth. I'm thinking the time is come but you can understand my fear at this point in my life. What do you think the out come will be for me in this situation. Of course I just retired recently and now am on medicare with no dental insurance. I'm really bummed out about all of this .  |