How Do You Know If Your Wisdom Teeth Are Coming In?

Contrary to what people believe, wisdom teeth don’t actually give you knowledge, insight, and intelligence. If you aren’t given more knowledge, how do you know if your wisdom teeth are coming in? Well, instead of great knowledge, when wisdom teeth start coming in, patients often experience excruciating pain and discomfort until they are professional removed.

What Are Wisdom Teeth?

Wisdom teeth are the third set of molars that grow in the back of the mouth behind the molars you can likely see on both your top and bottom jaw. There are typically four wisdom teeth—one on each side of the upper jaw and two on either side of the lower jaw. For most people, wisdom teeth come through in their late teens or early 20s.

How Wisdom Teeth Got Their Name

Due to their later-in-life appearance, these third molars were deemed the “teeth of wisdom” back in the Seventeenth Century and later shortened to “wisdom teeth” in the Nineteenth Century.

How Do You Know If Your Wisdom Teeth Are Coming In?

The growth of wisdom teeth can sometimes catch you off guard, especially if you think you’ve established all of your adult teeth. These molars are even more tricky in the sense that just because most people have wisdom teeth doesn’t mean that everyone’s wisdom teeth come through. Some people can live their entire lives without experiencing a single wisdom tooth coming through, while others may only have to worry about the top or bottom two coming in. Other, still, may experience the pain and discomfort of having all four wisdom teeth erupt through the gums.

It’s important to understand that each person’s wisdom teeth present differently. Your wisdom teeth will likely differ from those of your parents, siblings, friends, and other family members. To answer, “how do you know if your wisdom teeth are coming in?” keep in mind the acronym PRII: pain, redness, infection, and impact.

• Pain: Is often the first and most common sign of wisdom teeth. You’ll probably experience noticeable pain in the back of your mouth behind your other molars. Note that if your wisdom teeth are, in fact, coming in, this pain will not go away but instead gradually increase as they grow in a slanted, misaligned direction, press on bone and nerves, and overcrowd your other teeth.
• Redness: As wisdom teeth rise through the gums, bacteria can enter the open tissue and cause redness, tenderness, and swelling around the tooth.
• Irritation/infection: If the bacteria that gets into the open tissue isn’t extracted or cleaned, it can cause an oral infection that can cause pain, bad breath, and greatly affect your overall health.
• Impact: If your jaw bone and surrounding teeth prevent these molars from breaking through, your wisdom teeth can become impacted, or trapped. Impacted wisdom teeth can cause excruciating pain, infection, and other complications as the roots continue to elongate into the jaw bone.

Now that you can answer, “how do you know if your wisdom teeth are coming in?” you are prepared to take the next step. If you begin to experience any of these signs, contact The Wisdom Teeth Guys immediately. The sooner you have your wisdom teeth removed, the less you’ll risk pain, infection, and misalignment of other teeth. As the premiere wisdom teeth experts in Utah and Texas, the dental professionals at The Wisdom Teeth Guys have the training, knowledge, and experience that you need to make your wisdom teeth removal as efficient and effective as possible.