What are wisdom teeth?
Starting from your teens, and even at any stage in adulthood, your wisdom teeth may continue to move, causing pain and swelling. Wisdom teeth are the last teeth in the back of the jaw, and are very hard to brush and keep clean. They are also often impacted, growing in the wrong direction, and may trap food and plaque between your jaw and the rest of your teeth. Possible symptoms include tenderness, ache, significant pain, swelling, limited mouth opening and abscess in the jaw.
For most people, wisdom teeth don’t fit into the jaw, and the jaw stops growing when you are in your 20s. Which means that once you start getting wisdom teeth symptoms—related to pocketing, food trap, decay—sometimes these symptoms worsen with time. It is important to have your wisdom teeth assessed for possible extraction in order to make sure they are not affecting the teeth in front, causing a hole to start in the front molar, or crowding of your teeth. Early detection, assessment and removal may prevent loss of other molars you need for chewing.
Wollongong Dental Team can help!
If you have a Medicate card, currently we are offering a Medicare bulk-billed oral surgery consult with our specialist Oral Surgeon—including any imaging needed! Many practices charge patients a private consultation fee as well as x-ray costs just to assess wisdom teeth. However, we try to save our patients money where possible so our specialist surgeon will waive the gap consultation, in order to plan for the best and cheapest way for you to have your wisdom teeth removed professionally and painlessly.
All of our dentists are capable of removing straight-forward erupted wisdom teeth, however in many cases, wisdom teeth have difficult access and may be impacted, requiring a surgical extraction. We are lucky to have a specialist oral surgeon provide services for our patients, and hence you do not need an external referral to a costly surgeon where you may need to pay another consult fee. Simply call us on (02) 4244 0600 for a wisdom teeth consult. We will provide you with a way of reducing the immediate infection and pain, and also help you plan for a painless removal of your wisdom teeth, in the most affordable way possible!
IV Twilight sedation
Our dentists and oral surgeon can remove wisdom teeth under local anaesthetic or can also offer extractions under IV or twilight sedation, meaning you are nearly asleep and will not remember any part of the procedure.
If you need multiple wisdom teeth removed, they are deeply impacted or are a nervous or anxious patient, you may prefer to be asleep for the procedure. We offer sedation in our practice, which means you save on not having to pay hospital fees or the hospital excess, and need to pay for the treatment and anaesthesia only.
The benefit is that if you require fillings and also extraction, you can get all your dental treatment done while under sedation while most hospitals are not equipped with general dental equipment and materials.
Book Online
If you are interested in a bulk-billed oral surgery or implant consult, contact us to book online! Our phone number is (02) 4244 0600 for any further questions.