wisdom tooth

Using Imaging to Help Treat a Fused Wisdom Tooth

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An interesting article titled “Endodontic Management of a Fused Mandibular Third Molar with Supernumerary Tooth Using Cone-Beam Computed Tomography: A Case Report” appears in the American Journal of Case Reports written by W. Almutairi and M. Alduraibi (2022; 23: e937224). The article discusses a case report of a 26 year old man that had a wisdom tooth fused with with a supernumerary tooth. In the article discussion is made of the 26 year old man man with good oral hygiene who arrived at the author’s college in Saudia Arabia after having two days of severe pain on his lower jaw. An exam showed a large, mesially tilted, irregular wisdom tooth fused with a fourth molar. The fused tooth was tender to touch and responded to pain when a cold stimulus was used. The clinical findings suggested symptomatic irreversible pulpitis with … Read more

Rare abscess in chewing muscle after wisdom tooth extraction

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An interesting article titled “A Rare Infratemporal Fossa Abscess of the Lateral Pterygoid” appears in Cureus written by B.S. Daines, R. Varman, and J. Cordero (May 27, 2022, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. e25391). The article discusses how a 26 year old man developed an infratemporal fossa abscess in the lateral pterygoid, a masticatory muscle used for chewing, after having a wisdom tooth extraction. The article discusses how the 26 year old man developed facial swelling after having two upper wisdom teeth extracted. He presented with facial swelling on his left side which was accompanied by constant and dull pain localized to the left face with radiation to the left temple and made worse when he opened his jaw. The man also had a low grade fever and his symptoms persisted even with taking oral amoxicillin for one week and … Read more

How dentists can navigate ethical treatment decisions for patients

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An interesting article titled “How to manage the principal-agent problem in dentistry,” appears in the June 2022 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) written by Ben Balev (no. 153, issue 6, pp. 588-589). The article discusses the principal-agent problem, in which the dentist operates as the agent for the patient who is the principal and there is an imbalance of power between the patient and the dentist in decision making. In the dentist-patient relationship, the dentist has specialized knowledge that the patient lacks, and the patient seeks to make up for their lack of knowledge by having the dentist help in oral health decisions. Such a relationship requires that the patient trusts that the dentist functions in their best interest. However, sometime the patient questions the dentists motives behind their treament recommendations. The patient may wonder … 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

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