Upper Wisdom teeth blocked by bone graft
 

Hi everyone,

I am now 32 years old and it's been more than a year since I underwent a procedure where my second molar was removed instead of my wisdom teeth along with sinus lift and insertion of bone filler and membrane to my sinus cavity. However, my upper wisdom teeth has not come out yet and I'm worried that it might erupt in an abnormal position because it has been blocked by the bone graft. Has anyone heard or encountered a similar situation before? Your feedback will be highly appreciated.

Am I the only one who have encountered this problem? :eek: Could someone please help me out on this? Thanks.

I'm sorry that you're still waiting for a reply Sonuger, but please bear with us.

This forum is obviously a little quiet at the moment, but we do have regular contributors who drop in as often as they can, so hopefully you'll get the answers that you seek soon.

Hi Sonuger,

Bone graft material is used to stimulate the growth of new bone to help fill in the hole that was left from the extracted tooth. The graft actually becomes the new bone, not additional bone. You may be envisioning bone growth upon bone... that is not the case. Without the graft, the hole would close higher leaving an indentation in the bone.

To determine how well the bone graft has taken and to see the location of the wisdom tooth, you could get an xray at your dental office.

Bryanna


QUOTE=Sonuger;919588]Hi everyone,

I am now 32 years old and it's been more than a year since I underwent a procedure where my second molar was removed instead of my wisdom teeth along with sinus lift and insertion of bone filler and membrane to my sinus cavity. However, my upper wisdom teeth has not come out yet and I'm worried that it might erupt in an abnormal position because it has been blocked by the bone graft. Has anyone heard or encountered a similar situation before? Your feedback will be highly appreciated.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your reply, Bryanna. Am I wrong in thinking that my wisdom tooth has become trapped because it has been blocked by the bone graft? I have researched about bone grafting and found out that the procedure is used for dental implants and NOT for extraction of second molar. My dentist told me that my wisdom teeth was too close to my sinus so it would be safer to remove the second molar. I am suspecting that my dentist has performed additional procedures (sinus lift and insertion of bone fillers and membranes) so that he could overcharge me when collagen (which is much cheaper) could have been used instead. Have you heard anyone with the same case as mine before?

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Sonuger,

It is wise to place bone graft material for most extractions to help restore some of the bone loss from the missing tooth. The only exception would typically be wisdom teeth because they are either impacted or very far back in the jaw where there would be no need to replenish the bone once the teeth were removed.

Why was your second molar removed? Was the tooth infected?
Was the intention to make room for the wisdom tooth to come in?

Bryanna




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Thank you for taking time to answer my question. As I've mentioned, my dentist opted to remove my second molar because my impacted upper wisdom tooth was already very close to my sinus. My concern now is whether the wisdom tooth would still come out or not (because the bone graft might get in its way) and if it does, would it come out in the space previously occupied by the second molar. But it seems that I am the only one with this kind of problem. Thanks anyway for your answer.


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Sonuger,

You are not the only one with this concern. However, I am still unclear as to the reason why the second molar was extracted in the first place.

Was there something wrong with this tooth? Was it preventing the wisdom tooth from coming in? Did your dentist tell you that if he took out this molar that your wisdom tooth would come down?

There is never any way to know if a wisdom tooth will come in or not after the second molar is extracted. Sometimes it takes years for that to happen and other times it never happens at all. Sometimes the wisdom tooth will poke through the bone and gum tissue only slightly and never move any further. Other times it is brought in by doing orthodontia. It all depends on the position and size of the wisdom tooth. I don't understand why the graft was placed if the sole reason for removing the second molar was to allow the wisdom tooth to come in. So what was the "reason" for removing the second molar?

Bryanna



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My dental xray showed that the impacted wisdom tooth was already pushing my second molar and my dentist told me that it might damage the adjacent tooth if not removed. But because wisdom tooth was very close to my sinus, he told me it would be safer to remove the second molar. He told me also that my sinus cavity was "unusually large" and was already touching my gums so he performed sinus lifting and inserted bone fillers and membranes to make my sinus smaller. Do you think I was overtreated and overcharged by my dentist?


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Sonuger,

My interpretation of your description without seeing an x-ray .... the wisdom tooth was laying against the distal root of the second molar and perhaps you were developing bone loss and/or a deep pocket between these two teeth. The concern with leaving this alone is that you would end up with an abscess in which both teeth would have to be extracted. In spite of the sinus involvement with the wisdom tooth, some dentists would have removed the wisdom tooth, others the second molar. Neither decision is better than the other. He placed the graft because without it there would have been a big void in the bone and he was trying to preserve as much integrity of the bone as possible. Based on your description, he needed to do the sinus lift in order to place the graft.

Did your dentist say that he thought the wisdom tooth would come down?

Bryanna




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