Wisdom Teeth

metroeagle

5-Year Member
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Apr 21, 2012
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I am a sponsored prep this year and during Christmas break went to the dentists office. He told me that it would be best to get my wisdom teeth out in the near future. Should I get them out during spring break or wait for the AFA to do it. Thanks
 
I guess that depends on your insurance coverage. It is oral surgery and generally costs more than going to your regular dentist. My thinking is, if the dentist recommends them out, get them out. Then you don't need to have to worry about whether they will cause pain during BCT. I think though you might need to let DodMERB know or at least consult them, as it is considered surgery. As you can see, many factors will go into your decision at this point. If you wait until you are at USAFA, you will likely miss classes on at least one day.
 
If they'll start causing problems in the next year, I'd get them taken out now. You don't want to miss part of BCT because of wisdom teeth surgery. If not (or insurance won't cover it) then wait. USAFA will take them out for you free of charge while you're here (via Tricare insurace) and it is possible to schedule the surgery for a 3 day weekend or other time when you won't miss class. Many of my classmates have had the surgery here with no problem. It is actually a requirement to have your wisdom teeth taken out before pilot training, if that's your goal. I still have mine, but they're coming out sometime this spring.
 
It is actually a requirement to have your wisdom teeth taken out before pilot training, if that's your goal.

I don't think that's true. Now, they are VERY proactive about pulling them if they even THINK they might be a problem in the future!
 
Our DS has his wisdom teeth, he has had his FAA physical, and also the DoDMERB flight physical for about 18 months. He is at UPT and leaves for IFS in 2 weeks, when he returns from IFS he has 1 week down time before starting UPT.

He has all of his wisdom teeth. That being said. His 4 wisdom teeth came in just fine, thus they left him alone. Dentists can see very early on if they are coming in impacted.

Bullet flew for 21 yrs and only had 1 or 2 of his teeth pulled, not all 4. For some their wisdom teeth do not erupt until 21 or 22, which is why they are being pro-active since in the xrays at 17 they can see they will not come in straight. I didn't have mine pulled until I was 23 because that is when they came in, and still only had 3 of the 4 pulled. As you can see for me they would have done it earlier since if I was in the program it would have impacted flying. You can dry sockets from wisdom teeth extraction, and pulling any g is not going to be good. Your xrays can show if it will be a problem. In the OPs case the dentist is saying already they are eventually going to be pulled, the diagnosis is not maybe, or we will wait and see, it is we will be pulling.

OBTW the flight physical he took was at Wright Pat., and it was a 3 day TDY, included everything from EKGS to dental to ENT. It was only for UPT selected ROTC cadets with flight surgeons as the docs. Had this been an issue, they would not have DQ'd him without the extraction. They even remarked he was one of the lucky ones that they came in perfect otherwise they would have pulled them at that time.

As raimius said the key word is THINK, it is not a must. I do know there have been some that got tripped up on this, and I think it might come down to the fact that I believe AFA cadets do not go through the 3 day flight physical, instead they have the short physical like the one to get in to the AFA and the FAA. It really is a 3 day physical 6 hours a day, and the results are not official for about 4-6 weeks because it goes up and down the chain, with lots of eyes looking over everything. Delaying a UPT student is not something they ever want to do when it was under their control at a much earlier point.
 
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I am a sponsored prep this year and during Christmas break went to the dentists office. He told me that it would be best to get my wisdom teeth out in the near future. Should I get them out during spring break or wait for the AFA to do it. Thanks

I had mine out a few weeks ago. I called DoDMERB to see if I needed to give them x-rays or anything, and they said no, as long as I didn't have any complications. I am not yet an appointee though, so that might change.
 
I had mine out a few weeks ago. I called DoDMERB to see if I needed to give them x-rays or anything, and they said no, as long as I didn't have any complications. I am not yet an appointee though, so that might change.

Second this. I called DoDMERB before I had mine removed, and they said the same thing. I had an LOA at the time, but not an appointment.
 
I don't think that's true. Now, they are VERY proactive about pulling them if they even THINK they might be a problem in the future!

I think it's a new USAFA policy. My class was told that every USAFA cadet headed to pilot training WILL have their wisdom teeth removed, simply because a few pilot trainees a year were failing UPT or were rolled back to a different class due to wisdom tooth problems that developed during UPT and caused them to miss too many training days.

The oral surgery schedule is pretty booked up right now because they're finishing up the rated-AFSC firsties.
 
falcon. so you are saying they will extract regardless if they need it or not.

End of subject. period. dot!
 
Pima,

I may be wrong, but that's what I was told during my pilot qual physical! Mine are coming in just fine and they're yanking them anyway. Military efficiency...
 
Hi
This seems to be that same story over at Navy. They are told to get theirs removed as well. Thank goodness my DS has had his out for over a year already, so one less thing to worry about.
Regards
John
 
I don't think that's true. Now, they are VERY proactive about pulling them if they even THINK they might be a problem in the future!
As a graduate of class 68A Moody AFB GA, all our class had to have our wisdom teeth extracted so it is at least a 50 year old policy. They gave us a day of with Darvon then back to flying. As far as I can remember, no one had any problems. Good luck.
Tipper 20
 
Psgoodrich - The posts you were responding to were from 2013......... :zip:
 
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