Hi all,

I was looking around the web for some information similar to my condition and stumbled across this forum, so I figured I'd ask my questions here.

When I went in for my last dental X-Ray (shortly after joining the military) the dentist told me that my lower wisdom teeth were impacted and needed to come out (no big deal) but my upper wisdom teeth were very, very odd; in the standard forward-view x-ray, my two upper wisdom teeth were completely horizontal, and the dentist was worried that the right one may be in the sinus. He sent me to the base "Oral/Maxillofacial Surgeon", who performed a CT scan.
When the results came back, the surgeon (a very quirky, though extremely friendly, 0-6 with a less than organized desk) told me that my left wisdom tooth was merely horizontal in my gums, and thus no big deal, but that my right wisdom tooth was actually developing >inside< my sinus cavity. He said it wasn't just perforated (I had looked up some info on my iPhone while he was reading the scans) but that the tooth had actually developed inside the sinus on a little mount of jawbone. He said that, while extremely unusual for its placement, it was otherwise not an issue. He said that he would make an incision in the front of my sinus cavity (well away from the tooth) and remove it from there.

While I have supreme confidence in my superior officers and his abilities as a surgeon (crossing fingers) i was wondering if anyone has actually heard of this happening before; I asked him if a problem would occur from the hole left by the tooth between the sinus and my mouth, and he informed me that I was mistaken; apparently there is no 'hole' there because the tooth is fully inside the sinus (horrible image, I know). Any info on how common this is, or whether I should be worried, would be greatly appreciated!

~TJ

PS. For all you people who take your professional time out of your days to help us little people, I cannot express my gratitude at your benevolence. Thanks!

Hey TJ!

My first thought is ..... why are you removing these upper wisdom teeth? Does the oral surgeon feel they are in a unfavorable place and will eventually cause you some concern if you were to just leave them alone?

It is not unusual for wisdom teeth to be horizontal nor is it unusual for them to be in the area of the sinus. In your case, the upper left one probably has some bone attachment but is mostly embedded in gum tissue and can be removed fairly easily. Your upper right one never decended down as you grew older and it ended up being in your sinus cavity as your anatomy changed.

The surgery to remove this upper right tooth is very different than any other tooth extraction. The surgeon will make an incision inside of your mouth allowing him access to your sinus cavity. Yes, there will be a hole in the sinuses after the tooth is removed, but it will be repaired/closed with some type of collagen material and the access hole through the gum will be suture closed.

Oral surgeons see these kinds of things all of the time. I am not sure how much a military OS has seen or done, but in general civilian practice they see alot of this.

I would like to lessen your fears/concerns by saying you are in good hands. However, it is unlikely that the military OS has performed this type of surgery more than a few times, if that. It really should be done by someone who is very familiar with performing it because the sinus cavity is a very delicate area and if it gets messed up, it is very difficult to fix later on. Are you still in the military now? Would there be a way to have a civilian OS perform the surgery?

Again....... what is the reason for removing these upper wisdom teeth?

Bryanna

Bryanna,

Thanks for the reply!

As to why it has to be removed: I'm going into the nuclear submarine field, and all submariners require that they pass a physical which determines whether they could have future problems that would require the submarine to deviate from their mission to fix the problem. In my case (and all submariner's cases) that means that if there are abnormalities (i.e. odd wisdom teeth) it must be dealt with before getting underway. The surgeon and dentist both acknowledge that, if not for the submarine thing, the surgery would be unnecessary.

As to his skills...well, I will admit that I am a little worried, but the surgeon himself is 55ish, and has been an Oral/Maxillofacial surgeon for 25 years. He told me not to worry, that he does about 4 of these a month (he is the only such surgeon in the navy at Naval Base Great Lakes), and that about 10-20% of his surgeries require that he go into the sinus cavity.

I am relieved that you have heard of my situation before; that was my primary concern, as to whether I had such a unique situation that there may be unforeseen complications. While I definitely would be happier if I could avoid people riffling around in my sinuses, I trust the doctor himself to do a good job; he seems to be very competent and knowledgeable, and at the same time understands that messing me up permanently would be a very bad thing for the Navy (lots of money in training, education, etc).

Thanks for your reply!

~TJ

Hi Sacrilege,


NUCLEAR submarines!!!! Oh my goodness!! Just the thought of living in a submarine makes me shudder never mind the nuclear part :-(
You don't have to answer this but...... what made you choose that as a career?

It seems a bit odd to me that they would consider these "silent" wisdom teeth as a possible problem when there are so many other things that could occur unexpectedly that would be potential inconveniences (to put it mildly) for the mission at the time. Why these teeth I wonder?? I understand that they are considered an abnormality, but so are alot of other things. Oh well, they are not going to let you on the boat with those teeth, so I guess you have no choice!

The Navy OS does about 4 of these a month?? Civilian oral surgeons do several of these cases every day..... that's a big difference in experience. I'm sure he projects confidence in doing this surgery and hopefully would tell you if he felt otherwise. When are you scheduled?

I wish you all the best in all of your ventures. I hope and pray that your journeys are all safe ones! If you can, we would love to hear from you from time to time!!

Take good care and God bless!!

Bryanna

just had major sinus surgery 4 embedded wisdom teeth and 9 teeth roots. i have implants to go in there when i saw that my sinus had fallen in upper jaw bone i wanted some one was experiencde so far so good even took graft and put it in my blood so the graft was familiar to my body Hiriam Nasr Metairie LA 504-831-0800 hes great