Wisdom Teeth and Dentist Culture

I found an interesting article today on how the “Culture of research led to changes in extraction of wisdom teeth.” The article addressed wisdom teeth removal surgery in the United Kingdom (UK) and how this has changed over time. An interesting tidbit is there were 130,000 surgical extraction procedures conducted in England and Wales in 1995.  By 2002, this number had fallen to less than 60,000. The reason was because of research and learning from evidence. There is no benefit to extracting  healthy impacted wisdom teeth since the procedure caries the risk of damage to facial nerves. It is unfortunate that a similar policy has not been implemented in the United States. On a lighter note, another website discusses deranged dentist names. It is not exactly clear were some of the readers are from, however, some of them are amusing. … Read more

An Oral Surgeon and His Quest To Educate

I found the website of an Oral Surgeon living in England and teaching at the King’s College Dental School who has started a website to educate patients. His website addresses many of the issues surrounding wisdom teeth removal and their removal. I am suprised I did not find it until this month as looks like it has been around since 2007. On the website it states “As an Oral Surgeon, I find the more information you can give patients and dentists the better.” I feel the goals of his site are somewhat aligned with those of my own. He is also very knowledagle on different policy issues occuring in the UK. The website includes some very detailed explanations of problems and complications that can occur form tooth removal. http://www.exodontia.info/ExodontiaWarnings.html The website also includes some of the guidelines governing the practice … Read more