Teens & Wisdom Teeth Removal

[momto3pirates]

You got a dentist that didn't know what he/she was talking about. He needs to stay in his lane and leave HR to HR. You would have gotten three days convalescent leave (non-chargeable days). I am retired Air Force HR but worked in joint commands and all branches give convalescent leave to recover from wisdom teeth removal. So the day of surgery PLUS three days. If you have weekends off, Tuesdays are a great day to have the surgery because you have five days to recover.

When we have reservists in on their 2 week training, we are not allowed to do anything outside of emergency care. They are there to train. If we pulled wisdom teeth, they would miss most of their annual training. It’s actually in the regulations.
I’m an active duty Army dentist.

 

[mco65]

My oldest son had his removed 2 days after his 18th birthday.. 2 grand...

 

[KPeterso]

Mine came out right after I came home for the summer after my first year of college, so I guess 19. Mine actually did come all the way in which still baffles my current dentist as I have a really small jaw. Also never had any braces. Anyway, I had a serious problem getting the toothbrush all the way back to the wisdom tooth when brushing and got a massive cavity. My dentist immediately said it should come out and if doing that one to do the one above or below, and if doing that all 4, as he figured it was just a matter of time before I got cavities in the others since I could just not get the toothbrush back there enough. So that is what was done. Although a few months later based on my school schedule.

 

[amcnj]

Any dentist I have used over the years seemed to only suggest removing them if there was an issue with them, such as being impacted or they are crowding the other teeth, so that was what we followed. In my own case my top two were pointing forward, so not crowding any other teeth but also not doing me any good. So in my late twenties I had them removed. The dentist removed three and I still have three. It turns out the reason they started pointing forward was a second set of smaller wisdom teeth were coming in on the top. So when taking out the one side, the smaller one was further along and came out too. The other side only the full sized tooth was removed, and later a smaller version appeared, which I still have today.

 

[Eureka]

My 17 year old just had them out this summer. I also had them out when I was 17. He has been done with braces for several years now. I think with my 15 year old they are waiting to see if he needs braces/when that might start before they take them out. Also, DS17 got his teeth and lost his baby teeth much earlier than DS15. Even with insurance it was over $1000 out of pocket.

 

[Hikergirl]

What a timely thread! My dd20 just went to the dentist this morning and they told her she had to have hers taken out, one is impacted and coming in sideways. They wanted to schedule her for Monday but she's leaving for school Thurs next week. We are putting off the procedure until she's back in December for winter break. It isn't ideal but there is no way she will be able to finish all her packing and do what she needs to do and recover before she leaves in 3 days. Plus one of my nieces and a nephew had problems during recovery so I'd like dd to be home for awhile after just in case.
My ds17 is just getting his in so as of right now they aren't a concern to have to come out.
My youngest's aren't in yet.

I had mine out when I was 17 because of crowding. My dh never had his taken out.

 

[4kids4karen]

When we have reservists in on their 2 week training, we are not allowed to do anything outside of emergency care. They are there to train. If we pulled wisdom teeth, they would miss most of their annual training. It’s actually in the regulations.
I’m an active duty Army dentist.

Yes, no one suggested getting wisdom teeth removed during training.

 

[4kids4karen]

No, he was correct. I was an intern and was only allowed 2 weeks and only during specific rotations (my first week of leave was January after beginning in June, the second week was in June a year after beginning). Back then it was prior to the 80 hour workweek for trainees and I don't remember actually having an entire weekend off for about two years unless on leave. Obviously things have changed a bit with restricted work hours but that was after my time.

My girlfriend had surgery as an intern and it had to wait until she was on a certain call schedule and it took all of her vacation for the academic year. We still earned 30 days but were not allowed to take them...would be considered UA. Before I checked out of the hospital for con leave (post partum) I had to run my leave chit all around the hospital to have everyone sign off on it. Physicians can be fairly hard on each other.

Two key words you mention is trainee and intern. Those two key words were not in the original post so of course my answer was for full-time active duty at their first duty station. Of course you wouldn’t have any Non-emergency dental work during training or internships.

I am not sure how these posts are going into conversation in reserve annual training, training status, and internships. No where did I state service members in these status.

 

[4kids4karen]

What age did your teens get their wisdom teeth removed?

So back to the question...

 

[MomToOne]

DD had hers out at 17. But there was a question on whether or not that was too early - her top teeth really hadn't dropped yet (her teeth always came in a little late due to some issues early in life). The Oral Surgeon said we could either wait and get them all done later when the top ones dropped (not recommended - her bottom teeth were at such an odd angle they would do damage pretty quickly), get the bottom ones out first then do the top ones later, or "try" and do them all at once at that time but without any promises on his actually being able to extract the top ones. In the end we decided to give getting them all out early in one go a try, and he managed to get the top ones out after all - but he had to do some pretty aggressive digging to get them. DD had a lot more pain afterwards than I did back when I had mine out in my early 20s as a result. But after a week, all was good. We had them removed during the summer so she could afford the down time.

 

[MeggyScumEsquire]

I had one out when I was 26 I believe - had no dental coverage so even though I needed all 4 out I couldn't afford it. Oral surgeon agreed since it was only the 1 bothering me.

Then at 29 I had extreme pain on one side from the other ones - to the point where I was desperately putting Ruba535 on my face to get some relief! I had a second oral surgeon remove those ones and she sounded surprised that they were bothering me so much - I guess they didn't look so bad on the xray.

Mine didn't even show on xrays when I was younger so I didn't get them out as a teen.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

We got DD18 removed last Dec while she was still 17, we did it the week between Christmas and New Years....fun for her, lol
All 4 of her were impacted, but everything went uncomplicated. She was way swollen like a chipmunk, but in the end, she only had a few small bruises on her jaw line, so.

It was approx $2200, and insurance said they would reimburse 80%, when it was all said and done they only reimbursed about 45% with no explanation or reasoning. There are no oral surgeons in network within 150 miles, but they would not budge on the reimbursement.

I'm glad we went ahead and did it, it was time and she was still young enough she had a pretty uneventful recovery. My parents never had the money to get mine taken out, and it has caused problems the older I've gotten.

DD12 is only showing his lower 2 on his pano, and DD11 is showing none, so it's possible he doesn't even have any.

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

You got me thinking when I had mine out... I believe it was when I was 27. All 4. 2 were growing in sideways and the other 2 were growing in just fine. And now that I think of it... I never got a bill It's nice when your cousin has worked for the same dentist for 20+ years

 

[Shanti]

I had mine removed at age 25 and should have had them out years earlier. They were quite impacted & hard to remove, and they caused my other teeth to become so crowded that it's hard for me to floss. I had a few inches of numbness on my chin after the removal for a few years, but that's back to normal now. I didn't have the money to pay for the removal, so I participated in a wisdom tooth removal pain medication study, which was a memorably miserable experience.

My son is 13 and I plan to have his wisdom teeth removed next summer. They already appear clearly on x-rays, so I am not going to wait around for them to start causing damage.

 

[gypsy_at_heart]

I've never had mine out and I'm 33. No issues, my teeth are straight, my dentist sees no need to remove them unless they are problematic - and I'm Canadian and have 100% dental coverage. My brother is 2 years older than me, same thing. Both my parent - 67 and 65 - same. I've never heard of dentists wanting to take out wisdom teeth that aren't problematic.

My cousin has 2 of hers out, she was in her 20's when she got them out because she managed to injure the tooth in a snowboarding accident. They took both bottoms out to keep it even.

 

[SteveH]

I never had mine out, never an issue. My oldest had his out in college, start of his Senior year and it was really rough on him. He was on a partial music scholarship, though he wasn't a music major. The result of having his wisdom teeth out was a change in his embouchure, though the professor was very understanding my son eventually quit as he just could never get back to playing music like he had. It was his call, I hated to see him walk away but reality was music didn't have the same magic for him, and the frustration of trying to get back to where he had been was taking to much effort and time. Sadly he's never picked up his Euphonium since.

 

[McKelly]

My DS17 just had his out this summer. My DD19's dentist said hers weren't ready to come out. The oral surgeon wanted to look at her xrays anyway, said yes they were. Took her in, they got the bottom teeth, but the top ones they couldn't reach. Probably because the dentist was right!!!

 

[tvguy]

Depends on the dental situation.
My wife had her's out at age 23 when she got braces. She had awful teeth. Including 2 extra teeth
Both our kids had them out at about age 14 when they got braces. They inherited my wife's bad teeth, right down to the 2 extra teeth.
I'm 61 and still have mine. I've had 3 adult dentists.
The first one I had from age 12 to age 50, his mindset was to see if the wisdom teeth gave you problems before deciding to remove him.
The second one I had from age 50 to 53. He said they needed to come out. Unfortunately, he also seemed to be of the mindset to do as many procedures on patients as he could to make money, which is why I left.
The third one I've had from age 53 to now, is of the same mindset as my first adult dentist. He says he doesn't think they will ever be an issue at this point.

 

[Tinknalli]

I am 44. My husband is 45. Kids are 14 and 16. None of us have had them taken out. Why bother unless there are issues? Why risk elective surgery? Mine are fully erupted in top and sit there just like any other molar. On the bottom the are both partially erupted. I have had many discussions with my dentist and we have agreed to leave them alone unless the get a cavity or cause issues. There are real risks to any elective surgery. Not to scare anyone, but did you know removing wisdom teeth can damage your optic nerve causing permanent blindness? There is a documentary out there that I saw once about it.

 

[Pooh2]

Our kids all got theirs out in high school, a few years after braces were done. The dentist said the wisdom teeth may mess up the orthodontic work.
Glad we had it done back then because our kids are now in their 20s and all have $8-12 K deductibles on their health insurance plans.