What Dentists Should Say to Patients when Something Doesn’t Go Right

Unfortunately dentists and oral surgeons don’t always have all procedures go as planned for their patients. For example, when it comes to wisdom tooth surgery, it is possible for the wrong set of wisdom teeth to be removed as is discussed on the wisdom teeth complications page, see https://www.teethremoval.com/complications.html. Since procedures don’t always go as planned, on this site before guidance for patients who want to be very defensive has been provided, see the post The Defensive Patients Guide to Wisdom Teeth Removal. While patients can sometimes be bad actors and deny that certain information was provided to them prior to a procedure (see the post Patient Recall During Informed Consent for Wisdom Teeth Surgery), dentists and oral surgeons also can behavior badly such as by telling patient’s after their procedure that their condition that resulted could not have possibly … Read more

Womans toothache that led to Wisdom Teeth Removal Turns out to be Cancer

A 29 year old woman in Scotland began to experience pain in her mouth in September 2020 and also felt a pea-sized lump on her jawline. She thought the pain and problems were due to not having wisdom teeth extracted and that an infection had developed. She later had four wisdom teeth extracted Glasgow Dental Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland, and then spent 12 months on antibiotics. After the wisdom teeth were removed she continued to have a swollen gland or lymph node and she continued to feel something was not quite right. In January 2021, he went in for a biopsy and CT scan. Four days after these tests were done she was told she had a cancerous lump and was diagnosed with osteosarcoma cancer. She started chemotherpay in early March 2021. She later had to have bone reconstruction, skin grafts … Read more

Horizontally Impacted Wisdom Teeth on Both Sides

An interesting article titled “Impacted Third Molars, A Rare Occurrence of Identical Bilateral Impacted Mandibular Third Molars in Linguo-Buccal Location: A Case Report” written by Shaul Hameed Kolarkodi and et al. appears in Cureus (vol. 13, no. 12, e20858). The article describes the case of a 20 year old man who had bilateral horizontally impacted lower wisdom teeth which found on a panoramic radiograph and also later confirmed with cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging. In the article the authors described how impacted wisdom teeth are when they cannot erupt into the proper position. They mention how doctors encounter many types of impaction of wisdom teeth teeth and mention how having horizontally impacted lower wisdom teeth on both sides is rare. Impacted wisdom teeth can happen due to a lack of space or a pathological change that can disrupt the … Read more

Charli XCX Latest Celebrity to Have Wisdom Teeth Removed

Charli XCX is the latest celebrity to have wisdom teeth removed. In the past many other celebrities who have had wisdom teeth extracted have been discussed on this site. See for example the posts Celebrities who have had Wisdom Teeth Extracted and Recent Celebrities to have Wisdom Teeth Removal. Charli XCX, who real name is Charlotte Emma Aitchison, is a 30 year old English singer and songwriter. Charli shared a photo of her lying in a hospital bed on Thursday January 5th, 2023. In the photo she is seen with with giant gauze pack in her mouth, a monitoring device connected to her forehead, one shoulder falling out of her hospital gown, and the other shoulder with a blood pressure cuff. In the caption of the photo Charli said, “all my wisdom has gone. dumb and inexplicable decisions only from now on.” Charli … Read more

Patient Stress Impact on Tooth Extraction Complications

An interesting article titled “The potential role of patient stress in rates of dental post-extraction complication” written by McDowall appears in the 2014 edition of Oral Surgery (vol. 7, pp. 162-167). The article explores whether stress, alcohol and tobacco use impacts the complication rate experienced after a tooth extraction. The authors recruited patients for the study who were at least 16 years old and having at least one tooth extracted. The patients were asked to fill out questionnaires incorporating the Global Measure of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Fast Alcohol Screening Test (FAST) and questions related to tobacco use. The PSS consists of fourteen questions designed to determine how stressful the persons life is and higher scores indicated greater perceived stress. The FAST consists of four questions designed to determine the frequency too much alcohol consumption and higher scores indicate … Read more