Dentistryfilter: will time "heal" my teeth or did my denstist mess me up?

January 4, 2008 10:55 AM

Dentistryfilter: will time "heal" my teeth or did my denstist screw me up?

Two weeks ago, my widsom tooth on the lower right was pulled, in what the dentist called a very difficult extraction. I still have the other three. The next day I noticed that my bite(?) was messed up. Somehow all the teeth on the bottom right side of my jaw (same side as the extraction) shifted inward or something and now those teeth don't meet correctly with the top teeth. They're all offset. And because my right side teeth don't close correctly, the teeth on the other side of my mouth don't touch at all when I close my mouth. So last week, I went back to the dentist to have a suture removed and told him about my tooth situation and he said my bite should correct itself as the extraction site heals. In the interests of full disclosure, I have to have a root canal on the tooth right in front of the extactred wisdom tooth. I think it is 31. Also, I suck at dental care, have an overbite, and although all my teeth did touch each other when my mouth closed (unlike now), I probably should have gotten braces as a kid.

My question is, is this likely to heal itself like the dentist said or did he mess up my teeth?

posted by nooneyouknow to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

I can't answer your specific question here, but if you're not confident in the answers you're getting from your dentist, go get a second opinion. I switched dentists this year and I'm glad I did. As it turns out, the dentist who crowned my molar didn't do anything necessarily wrong - though he gave me less options than the new one would have - but he was unable to answer my concerns about pain and healing.

So essentially I've changed dentists purely for communication quality. And I'd say that's a very good reason, not a trivial one.

If your dentist cannot or will not provide you quality answers and a long-term plan for dealing with your mouth, go see another one. If you get identical answers from the new one you can say thank you and go back to the original.
posted by phearlez at 11:05 AM on January 4, 2008

Your teeth will move around a bit after getting wisdom teeth out; eventually they will settle in to a more normal bite, and/or your new bite will feel normal to you after a while. I had a wisdom tooth pulled recently and yeah, my whole bite was off a little for a while. That said, phearlez has some good advice.
posted by Doohickie at 12:08 PM on January 4, 2008

yeah, it will happen. especially when the teeth are really crammed in there. I don't know what your x-rays looked like, but my teeth took a while to shift around and/or wear into their new positions. and I had to go through this twice; once when I got the wisdom teeth out, and another when I got the braces off...
posted by ArgentCorvid at 1:18 PM on January 4, 2008

That sucks. I experienced something similar a couple months ago. I cracked a wisdom tooth (bottom left) totally down to where the root was in two pieces. (I'm a "bruxer"--I grind my teeth.) My dentist pulled the tooth since "you don't need it anyway". For 5 weeks after that I was continually biting my cheek. My other teeth seem to have shifted, where I no longer do that. But yes, it can take a while for your mouth to settle down.
posted by wafaa at 3:00 PM on January 4, 2008

This sounds to me more like a jaw related issue than teeth shifting.

I had minor TMJ issues after my wisdom teeth extraction where it felt like my bite wasn't right. I recognized it because it felt the same as the TMJ I enjoyed as a teen when I had braces.

A difficult extraction probably meant he was rooting around deep in your mouth and may have dislocated your jaw a bit.

Of course, I am not a Dentist, or an Oral Surgeon.
posted by tomierna at 5:00 PM on January 4, 2008