wisdom teeth removal

Eighteen Year Old Music Student in Portland Dies After Wisdom Teeth Removal

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An eighteen year old male high school student planning to study music in college died last February in Portland, Maine, after having his wisdom teeth removed. The story is from Portland Press Herald, by Matt Byrne, posted February 26, 2014, titled “Love, sorrow, questions after Cheverus student’s death,” and accessed March 21, 2014. See http://www.pressherald.com/news/Cheverus_senior__budding_musician__dies_after_routine_oral_surgery_.html. The article describes the eighteen year old man as independent and compassionate and able to play the trumpet, bassoon, saxophone and English concertina. In this particular case the man had wisdom teeth extracted on a Wednesday in February. He then went home and two days later on Friday night his condition deteriorated. He is said to have died in the early hours Saturday in his mother’s arms at home. In the article Dr. Thomas Dodson, who now is with the University of Washington in Seattle … Read more

Mother of Two in Hawaii in a Coma After Wisdom Teeth Surgery

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A sad story in Hawaii has come out recently where a 23 year old mother of two has been left in a coma since having wisdom teeth surgery. This story is reported by Hawaii News Now in an article titled “Hilo woman in coma following wisdom teeth extraction,” written on March 19, 2014, by Tim Sakahara, located over at http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/25023450/hilo-woman-in-coma-following-wisdom-teeth-extraction. The woman had four wisdom teeth extracted and went into cardiac arrest during the surgery. She was flown to a medical center in Hawaii and has been unresponsive since. She has a healthy four year old son and three month old baby. She was reported to be in good health. It is not clear what anesthesia was given. I have previously reported other cases of coma and death from wisdom teeth extraction see http://www.teethremoval.com/death.html.

Asphyxia Due to Compression of the Trachea Leading to Death After Wisdom Tooth Extraction

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As discussed before on this website, having a wisdom tooth extracted can in rare instances lead to death. This is expanded on over at the wisdom teeth death page http://www.teethremoval.com/death.html. At the time of writing this, at least 67 deaths have been listed on this page attributable to wisdom teeth removal. In a recent case a 74 year old man has passed away in Japan after having a mandibular wisdom tooth extracted. A case report of this is described in Wataru Kawashima, Katsuhiko Hatake, Yoshifumi Morimura, Risa Kudo, Mari Nakanishi, Shigehiro Tamaki, Shogo Kasuda, Katsuya Yuui, and Akiko Ishitani, “Asphyxial death related to postextraction hematoma in an elderly man,” Foresnic Science International, vol. 288, e47-e49, 2013. In the article the authors describe how after having wisdom teeth extracted it is possible to develop bleeding. In some cases massive bleeding and … Read more

Looking at the Timing of Removal of Wisdom Teeth and It’s Effect on Complications

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An interesting study by M. Anthony Pogrel titled “What Is the Effect of Timing of Removal on the Incidence and Severity of Complications?” appears in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, vol. 70, issue 9, supplement 1, pages S37-S40, 2012. The author sets out to explore if younger patients (less than 25 years) have a decreased risk for postoperative complications than older patients.  The author begins by describing three studies in the literature that have shown that complications associated with wisdom teeth removal increase after 25 years of age. I have also mentioned several of these studies over at http://www.teethremoval.com/wisdomteeth.html. The author then goes on to discuss that recovery for patients of wisdom teeth surgery older than 21 may be delayed after extraction (by two studies). The author then discusses that mandibular fracture and tuberosity fracture may occur after … Read more

Removing Wisdom Teeth May Improve The Periodontal Health of Remaining Teeth

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An interesting article titled “Removal of Symptomatic Third Molars May Improve Periodontal Status of Remaining Dentition,” by Carolyn Dicus-Brookes and et al. appears in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (vol. 71, pp. 1639-1646, 2013). The article seeks to explore the impact of removing wisdom teeth on the periodontal status of adjacent second molars and other teeth located in the mouth specifically for patients who have mild symptoms of pericoronitis. As discussed recently over at Upcoming Changes to JOMS and AAOMS in 2014, select articles in JOMS will have press releases written by AAOMS staff to accompany them. This is one of those articles so that feature appears to have already been rolled out. To get an idea of what the press release entails I will briefly describe it. It is very short (less than 10 sentences) and fits … Read more