There are a few things that your child may experience that are a “passageway to adulthood.” Some may be high school dances like prom or homecoming, others may be the moment they pass their driving test and actually obtain their license.
Either way, there are a lot of changes that happen as a young adult—even changes that affect their smile. For instance, when you come of age, your very back wisdom teeth will begin developing, which can not only be painful, but they can affect the alignment of your smile.
Learn more about wisdom teeth and orthodontic treatment—two things your teen or young adult may face—in this week’s blog post from your family dentist in Fort Smith.
Wisdom Teeth Development
As your child ages, they will undergo many changes. Some of them won’t be as pleasant as others, like the dental pain that comes with budding wisdom teeth.
Many young adults experience swelling in their mouth and jaw, an annoying flap of gum tissue that’s cut from their developing teeth, and overall tenderness in their smile. These are all signs that their wisdom teeth may need to be pulled in order to prevent these issues:
- Incorrect development. Some wisdom teeth don’t develop into the correct positions, creating problems for your entire smile.
- Hygienic issues. Brushing and flossing teeth at the very back of your mouth is already challenging enough. But with the food that can be caught between your new teeth, flapping gum tissue, and its difficulty to reach in the back of your mouth, you can experience serious dental issues over time.
- Impacted wisdom teeth. There are many cases where patient’s wisdom teeth become “impacted” or never develop outside of the gum line. This calls for oral surgery to actually extract the teeth from below the gum line.
- Overcrowding in the smile. In many cases, there is not enough space in your smile for your wisdom teeth to develop correctly. When this happens, your wisdom teeth may begin to overcrowd your other teeth and cause other orthodontic or misalignment issues.
Orthodontic Treatment
You’ve probably discussed getting braces at one point or another for your child’s smile as they were growing up. If they’ve already undergone treatment and have a correctly aligned smile, wisdom teeth budding can cause their smile to become misaligned again. You may need to consider extracting their back teeth to avoid their smile from becoming crooked or overcrowded.
If your child hasn’t undergone orthodontic treatment yet, but was considering it recently, they may still want to have their wisdom teeth removed. If they are in the middle of developing, it’s not a good idea to add brackets and wires to their teeth because the chances of their teeth shifting are much greater when their back teeth are coming in.
Either way, if your child is experiencing wisdom tooth development or thinking about getting any orthodontic treatment—whether traditional braces or even clear aligners—it’s best to consult your dentist for the best dental advice.
About Our Office
Here at New Smile Dental, your family dentist in Fort Smith takes pride in being there for you and your loved ones from the time they are young to when they are growing into young adults. Give us a call today so that we can keep their oral health on the right track!