It’s a fact that doctors and dentists like to use fancy words, especially here in affluent San Francisco. We’re not exactly known as a “salt of the earth” town like Tulsa or Cleveland. Our San Francisco doctors seem to have a language that is all their own which may be devised so that we patients look up to them because we don’t understand what they are talking about.
So when talking about wisdom teeth they will use words like “impacted” and “eruption” and “extraction”. Actually, it is not so difficult to understand. A tooth that is erupting is simply one that is growing through the gum. If it gets blocked and cannot find its’ way through the gum correctly it is said to be impacted, and if that happens it needs extraction – we’d call that “having a tooth out!”
It doesn’t really matter what you call it. The point is that if you are going to have wisdom teeth removal it is a form of surgery and you need to have an oral surgeon who knows what he or she is doing. This is why a lot of the patients who come to see Dr Alex Rabinovich for wisdom teeth removal in our beautiful San Francisco offices do so because they have been referred to him by their dentists. They know that wisdom teeth removal is a job for a specialist and they also know that the best oral surgeon in San Francisco is Dr Rabinovich.
They Don’t Just Stop Growing; Your Wisdom Teeth, That is
The problem with impacted wisdom teeth is that they don’t just stop growing. They keep on pushing, trying to find their way through the gum with the result that they can grow sideways and push other teeth out of the way, or they can be trapped under the gum and bone causing pain and discomfort. When wisdom teeth are only partially erupted the opening around them will allow bacteria to grow which causes an infection of the gum. It is even possible for cysts or tumors to form around the tooth causing destruction of part of the jawbone and other healthy teeth and pushing them completely out of alignment.
If you have wisdom teeth growing through it is important to make an appointment with Dr Rabinovich as soon as possible so that he can conduct a thorough examination of your teeth and jawbone. Our San Francisco oral surgery office is in the Financial District, convenient to Muni. He will obviously see any existing problem, but he will also be able to predict if problems will occur a few months later. Either way, it is best to have wisdom teeth removed early rather than wait until they do cause a problem. It is the same principle on which you take your car to be serviced in order to prevent problems from arising.