In previous discussions on this blog such as Third Molar Morbidity Among Troops Deployed and elsewhere, a discussion has been made about whether or not wisdom teeth should be extracted in those involved in the armed forces. A new article from Hurlbert Field titled “Wisdom teeth: Should they stay or go” provides a perspective by Staff Sgt. Jeff Andrejcik, was written on December 3, 2013, and is located over at http://www2.hurlburt.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123372876. The article is written by a special operations dentist who performs wisdom teeth extractions. He says he has removed over 300 wisdom teeth and once removed 8 in one patient. He says in the article that most people don’t have room for wisdom teeth and they grow in sideways and are not cleansable. Larkin discusses how pericoronitis can occur in patients who have wisdom teeth that erupt but not fully leaving the gums to cover partially the teeth and when pockets of infection occur. Larkin then mentions how more serious problems then pericoronitis such as space infections can occur. He says that space infections can be a problem for those deployed in the field.
In the article Larkin is quoted as saying
“With anything in life, people tend to focus on the negative, we don’t enjoy putting people in pain, we like taking them out of pain. Trust your dentist.”
In the previous post that I mentioned, I discuss guidelines from SIGN and NICE which stated that armed forces should strongly consider having wisdom teeth removed because they can be in situations for a while without easy access to dental treatment. Another article I mention in that post, discusses how deploying a helicopter to transport a patient with significant wisdom teeth problems in the field to an oral surgeon can be a very costly and time consuming process. It is even possible that in certain situations transporting a patient to an oral surgeon will not be an option. Thus it is important that any service personnel discuss the benefits and risks of removing versus retaining any third molars (wisdom teeth) with an oral surgeon and carefully considers the options before being deployed.