Removal of wisdom teeth can be a true blessing.

We love a good night out at the theatre, and last week, we went to a great local production in the company of some old and dear friends. Nothing remarkable in that, you might say, but here’s why we bring this topic up.

One of our party was displaying obvious signs of discomfort, fidgeting and displaying facial tics that we knew only too well. To the trained eye, these are the very obvious signs of a dull dental pain. Not sharp enough to cause you to cry out, but enough to make you completely miserable.

We asked our friend what was ailing him and he revealed that he’d been experiencing painful wisdom teeth symptoms for the past couple of months. We asked him why he hadn’t got anything done about it and he replied that he was “giving them a chance to calm down”.

Sadly, we had to put him right on this issue and let him know that, once wisdom teeth have started to make their break for freedom, the pain and discomfort will not calm down of their own accord. Wisdom teeth removal is the only option - and here’s why. The roots of the wisdom teeth will continue to grow for two years after they first start to hurt, and the teeth will continue to do what comes naturally to them – break through the gums.

In this case, however, they were being blocked by perfectly healthy teeth that didn’t want to yield their position. Obviously, something has to give!

We passed on this information to our friend, absolutely confident that the right thing to do is to make an appointment right away for wisdom teeth extraction. If not, the pain will become worse and worse. And when he eventually opts to have them out, those growing roots that we mentioned earlier will make the task more difficult and potentially more uncomfortable.

There’s also the chance that an impacted wisdom tooth will develop. This means that the tooth is trapped within the gums and simply has nowhere to go. Trust us when we tell you that this soon becomes very painful indeed.

And the sad fact of life is that there’s really no such thing as long-term wisdom teeth pain relief. You can take over-the-counter painkillers in the short-term, but they soon lose their impact on the pain.

Our friend was somewhat disillusioned with this advice, but we had some good news for him to soften the blow. Wisdom teeth are a third set of molars that some of us get and some of us don't. But once you’ve had them removed, you’ll never get a fourth set. In other words, the problem is sorted permanently.

We also reassured our friend that at modern surgeries like MyDental, we’re very experienced in sorting the problem and do so with minimum discomfort.

If you yourself have had any unexplained dental twinges in recent times, bear in mind that you too could be suffering from the early symptoms of wisdom teeth. The quicker you act the better, but in the meantime, here’s a little further reading on the topic -http://www.medicinenet.com/wisdom_teeth/page2.htm