Wisdom Teeth

Man with infected wisdom tooth dies several weeks later

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In early 2021, a man 44 years of age living in Auckland in New Zealand, died a few weeks after being aware of having an infected wisdom tooth. He first complained of having pain in his lower right wisdom tooth on Christmas Eve in 2020. He went to see a doctor about it several times over many days for swelling and pain and was given antibiotics. He was unable to swallow the pills so was given liquid antibiotics instead but nothing seemed to help with the infection. Later the pain and swelling in his face and neck became progressively worse. He went to the hospital on January 4, 2021. While in the hospital he had x-rays taken and was later discharged. The family was shocked to hear that the man was able to get discharged that soon. He was sent … Read more

Surgery Free Wisdom Tooth Bud Ablation Treatment To One Day Replace Surgery?

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An interesting article titled “Fully Guided Tooth Bud Ablation in Pigs Results in Complete Tooth Bud Removal and Molar Agenesis” appears in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery written by Leigh E. Colby and David P. Watson, Vol. 81, Issue 4, pp. 456-466, Apr. 2023, Published Dec. 16, 2022. The article seems to be a follow-up to a prior article discussed on this site in the post “Tooth bud abalation of wisdom teeth may be alternative to surgery in the future“. That study had shown that fully guided microwave tooth bud ablation (3TBA) could be used to successfully remove wisdom tooth tooth buds without damaging surrounding tissues in a study with 5 pigs. The most recent study used a 28-day longitudinal characterization study to determine if healing response following fully guided microwave ablation of tooth buds in pigs would result in … Read more

Reducing Anxiety in Wisdom Teeth Surgery using Diazepam and Buspirone

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An interesting article titled “Comparative Evaluation of Efficacy of Oral Diazepam and Buspirone in Reducing Anxiety and Discomfort in Mandibular Third Molar Surgery- In Vivo Study,” by Mitra et al. appears in the Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development (vol.10, no. 3, Mar. 2019, pp. 182-186). The article seeks to compare the effectiveness of diazepam and buspirone in reducing anxiety and discomfort in lower wisdom teeth removal. The authors were motivated to perform the study because dental anxiety has been reported to range from roughly 4% to 21%. Even more alarming is that up to nearly 50% of patients who have high anxiety have missed a dental appointment at one point. While non medication treatment options exist such as behavioral modification and hypnosis and guided relaxation, some patients may really only respond to medications. Benzodiazepines are the most … Read more

Iatrogenic Fracture of the Mandibular Angle During Wisdom Tooth Surgery

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An interesting article titled “Iatrogenic Fracture of the Mandibular Angle During Excision of an Impacted Third Molar” appears in Cureus in August 04, 2022, written by Agrawal P, Jadhav A, Bhola N D (vol. 14, no. 8, pp. e27672). The article discusses a case of a 30 year old woman who had atrogenic mandibular angle fracture after having an impacted wisdom tooth removed. In the article, the authors mention of a 30 year old woman visited their outpatient department complaining of pain and swelling over the lower right side of her face with an inability to open her mouth and chew for the last four days. Prior to this, she had her lower right impacted wisdom tooth removed under local anesthesia. On exam, the woman was found to have an asymmetrical face due to swelling over the lower right region … Read more

What is the Estimated Amount of Wisdom Teeth Extractions in the US

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An interesting article titled “Estimated Cumulative Incidence of Wisdom Tooth Extractions in Privately Insured US Patients,” written by Alan R. Schroeder and et. al. appears in Frontiers in Dental Medicine (July 2022, vol. 3, article 937165). The article sought to determine the cumulative incidence and predictors of wisdom teeth extractions in the US. The article was motived by some of the controversy around wisdom teeth extractions and to better provide frequency estimates of the procedure to help inform future quality improvement initiatives and/or clinical trials. The authors used a national dental insurance claims database of privately insured patients (IBM MarketScan Dental Database), to help estimate the incidence of wisdom teeth extractions in the US and to determine variation by sex and geographic region. The authors included all patients in the database for their study who were under 60 years of … Read more