nerve damage

Wisdom Teeth Surgery Injury Leads to Ride on Rose Parade Float

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The Tournament of Roses Parade or Rose Parade for short has been happening every year on New Year’s Day (or sometimes the day after New Year’s Day) since the late 1800s. The Rose Bowl college football game follows the Rose Parade with this year featuring the University of Washington Huskies versus The Ohio State University Buckeyes with Buckeye coach Urban Meyer coaching his final game before retirement. This year a young woman who suffered a nerve injury after having wisdom teeth removed was selected to ride on the 2019 Donate Life Rose Parade float ” Rhythm of the Heart.” The woman had four wisdom teeth removed while she was a sophomore in high school in 2016. Nearly a week after the surgery she was still in pain on her right side due to numbness and infection. Later she learned that her lingual nerve had … Read more

Using Fibrin Glue to Help Lingual Nerve Repair

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An interesting article titled “Use of Fibrin Glue as an Adjunct in the Repair of Lingual Nerve Injury: Case Report,” was written by Nicholas P. Theberge and Vincent B. Ziccardi and appears in the 2016 Journal of Oral and Maxilofacial Surgery (vol. 74, pp. 1899 e1-e4). The article describes a report of a case of a woman in her 20s who had an impacted wisdom tooth removed and developed left lingual nerve numbness and pain. She later had surgery with fibrin glue to help correct the lingual nerve injury. The article reports that most lingual nerve injuries after wisdom teeth removal occurs in 0.4% to 22% of cases. Such an injury can be detrimental to patients and lead to drooling, tongue biting, self-induced thermal injuries, and changes in speech, swallowing, and taste perception. Lingual nerve deficit has been reported to … Read more

Target specific brain cells to help with neuropathic pain

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Researchers from Rutgers University have explored treating chronic neuropathic pain which affects over 1 million Americans. Neuropathic pain results when nerve damage is caused due to injury, surgery or a some disease. Researchers showed that pain could be reduced in animals when microglia brain cells are targeted which are supposed to provide immunity. The researchers say that the microglia brain cells are supposed to be beneficial to the nervous system but in those with neuropathic pain these cells known as microglia have proliferated and instead become toxic. The researchers say that if they catch the injury within one to five days to inhibit microglia after nerve injury the development of chronic pain can be partially reversed. Neuropathic pain persists after the nerve has healed and is often resistant to normal pain medications. In lab mice the researchers used chemotherapy drugs to prohibit the microglia brain immune … Read more

Potential Risks of Surgery for Wisdom Teeth (Third Molars)

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M. Anthony Pogrel in his article “What Are the Risks of Operative Intervention?” in the Journal of Oral and Maxilofacial Surgery vol. 70, pp. 33-36, 2012, suppl. 1, goes into complications associated with removing impacted wisdom teeth (third molars). I have previously explored this topic in detail over at http://www.teethremoval.com/complications.html. Although I did a poor job of distinguishing actual complications from negligence. In the article, Pogrel describes how studies have indicated that around 10% (1 in 10) of people undergoing removal of third molars may suffer from a complication. However, most of these complications are mild and will completely resolve in time. Pogrel states “Complications from M3 removal can be divided into 2 groups: those that are short-lived and self limiting, including bleeding, inflammatory complications such as surgical site infection and alveolar osteitis, or “dry socket,” drug reactions, displaced crowns … Read more

Multi-Million Dollar Award In New York for Wisdom Tooth Extraction

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A 49 year old man had issues with a wisdom tooth. He went to several different times and had him attempt to remove it. He was sent home believing the extraction had been performed. However, the dentist had stopped the extraction after learning that the tooth was fused to the bone. Several hours after returning home, the man was rushed to the emergency room and was diagnosed with air emphysema and residuals roots by an oral surgeon. The oral surgeon than extracted the remaining portions of the wisdom tooth. Both the oral surgeon and dentist were found liable for the man’s injuries as neither obtained informed consent for the procedures they performed. The man has been unable to return to work as a hydro-geologist, and remains totally disabled as a result of his constant pain. He suffered extensive oral nerve … Read more