4 ms·

The Prophylactic Extraction of Third Molars: A Public Health Hazard

4 points by js2 8y ago

hprotagonist 8y ago
I'm guessing this is to do with https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-trouble-with-dentistry/586039/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-tro... I had my wisdom teeth pulled just last year and my age starts with a 3. My longstanding approach was "leave them alone until you have to care", which worked well. Pulling teeth that aren't infected or impacted or otherwise causing pain or discomfort seems fairly useless to me.
- nabla9 8y ago
  This seems to be the standard way to do it (at least in Finland). My dentist asks if there is pain, looks if they have surfaced and takes X-ray on some years to verify. One of my wisdom teeth was pulled because X-Ray showed inflammation. Rest of them are still there.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
throwawayteeth 8y ago
I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was in my twenties because I thought they were causing me bad headaches. The headaches went away afterward, and other than the pain and discomfort of the healing process, haven’t had any issues from their removal. My wife similarly had hers removed around the same age with no issues. Now our current dentist has recommended our daughter have hers removed. Her teeth were a mess as a kid and she had braces and still has two teeth that in each other’s position (bad luck, neither my wife nor I needed braces, nor our son). I’ve seen her x-rays and there does not appear for there to be any room for the wisdom teeth to emerge. But, my dad has lived with impacted wisdom teeth without issue and I’m sure plenty of people do. The UK recommended “The practice of prophylactic removal of pathology-free impacted third molars should be discontinued in the NHS” in 2000: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta1 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta1 NICE had planned to revisit this guidance but that’s been delayed for over two years now: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-tag525 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-tag525

4 points by js2 8y ago

I'm guessing this is to do with https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-trouble-with-dentistry/586039/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-tro... I had my wisdom teeth pulled just last year and my age starts with a 3. My longstanding approach was "leave them alone until you have to care", which worked well. Pulling teeth that aren't infected or impacted or otherwise causing pain or discomfort seems fairly useless to me.

nabla9 8y ago
This seems to be the standard way to do it (at least in Finland). My dentist asks if there is pain, looks if they have surfaced and takes X-ray on some years to verify. One of my wisdom teeth was pulled because X-Ray showed inflammation. Rest of them are still there.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

throwawayteeth 8y ago

I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was in my twenties because I thought they were causing me bad headaches. The headaches went away afterward, and other than the pain and discomfort of the healing process, haven’t had any issues from their removal. My wife similarly had hers removed around the same age with no issues. Now our current dentist has recommended our daughter have hers removed. Her teeth were a mess as a kid and she had braces and still has two teeth that in each other’s position (bad luck, neither my wife nor I needed braces, nor our son). I’ve seen her x-rays and there does not appear for there to be any room for the wisdom teeth to emerge. But, my dad has lived with impacted wisdom teeth without issue and I’m sure plenty of people do. The UK recommended “The practice of prophylactic removal of pathology-free impacted third molars should be discontinued in the NHS” in 2000: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta1 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta1 NICE had planned to revisit this guidance but that’s been delayed for over two years now: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-tag525 https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/indevelopment/gid-tag525