Wisdom teeth buried under the gum. Extract now or wait?

Both of my children (one committed and one still undecided) have had their two wisdom teeth extracted, but the other two are still buried under the gum. Their dentist recommends waiting for them to grow out of the gum before extracting, although he could do it now if we insisted. Should we follow the dentist's recommendation to wait, or should we opt for extraction now despite the need for full anesthesia and potentially a more painful recovery? Alternatively, should we submit the dental form and X-ray now, which shows they have two wisdom teeth buried under the gum, and wait to see what the academy instructs us to do? Does anyone have a similar experience and know what to expect?

I've heard that wisdom tooth removal at the hands of Service Academy dentists is brutal. Because of that, I just recently got all 4 of mine out in one go and recovered in about 4 days, but they weren't very deep under the gum.

My DS (current Plebe) is getting his removed at home during the summer break. His weren't ready before he went, then during Christmas break he had a checkup, and the Oral Surgeon determined they were now ready to come out. My DS was able to plan his CFT and Air Assault early so he has a 3-4 week break in July.

got 1 removed when i was a cadet. having it removed at school was perfectly fine. took my roommate with me because they put me to sleep and was all loopy after the procedure. received quarters for 1 day if i remember correctly. they give you pain medication. nothing was wrong with removing it at school, except i didn't follow the instructions and got a dry socket. if you do it at school, schedule it on a thursday so you can get friday off, wink wink

FVNY said:

Both of my children (one committed and one still undecided) have had their two wisdom teeth extracted, but the other two are still buried under the gum. Their dentist recommends waiting for them to grow out of the gum before extracting, although he could do it now if we insisted. Should we follow the dentist's recommendation to wait, or should we opt for extraction now despite the need for full anesthesia and potentially a more painful recovery? Alternatively, should we submit the dental form and X-ray now, which shows they have two wisdom teeth buried under the gum, and wait to see what the academy instructs us to do? Does anyone have a similar experience and know what to expect?

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Edit: they are under the bone, not just gum, so they are deep. We will monitor and wait until they erupt from the bone before extraction.

FVNY said:

Edit: they are under the bone, not just gum, so they are deep. We will monitor and wait until they erupt from the bone before extraction.

Click to expand...

Ours too went with the medical guidance of their dentist and oral surgeon to not remove at age 18 when entering a commissioning pipeline. Six years later on active duty the military dentist gave a referral for the Oral Surgeon to remove them. Every case is unique. No issues with the procedure on a military installation - except the long wait at the military pharmacy.

FVNY said:

Both of my children (one committed and one still undecided) have had their two wisdom teeth extracted, but the other two are still buried under the gum. Their dentist recommends waiting for them to grow out of the gum before extracting, although he could do it now if we insisted. Should we follow the dentist's recommendation to wait, or should we opt for extraction now despite the need for full anesthesia and potentially a more painful recovery? Alternatively, should we submit the dental form and X-ray now, which shows they have two wisdom teeth buried under the gum, and wait to see what the academy instructs us to do? Does anyone have a similar experience and know what to expect?

Click to expand...

Can you request a consult with an oral surgeon in your area? My husband is an oral surgeon and this is what he recommended. When my DD was a cadet she had recovery supplies in her room to share with those who had their teeth removed on post. She said it was kinda brutal that they didn't even send ice packs or recovery instructions and that most had to return to classes next day. She worked in the office growing up so she knew exactly what recovery looked like at home vs at WP. It was her recommendation that friends and fellow cadets get this done prior to r-day or during a break at home where you can be pampered. No harm in just consulting with oral surgeon to get their opinion.

I recently had one of our kids do the procedure. I can see why the cadet who posted above didn’t follow the directions and had a complication. It really helps to have someone take care of you when you are recovering since there are a lot of steps to follow to do it properly. One is supposed to only eat soft foods such as milkshakes, smoothies, jello, yogurt, or soup for a while until it is healed. Plus the frequent rinsing of the surgical area needs to be done every 1-2 hours, especially after eating. It seems like it would be challenging to do the post-op procedure properly when one is at an academy. I think it is preferable to have it done at home with mom taking care of the recovery.

Also note—
For our son who got an SA appointment, we didn’t even think about the wisdom teeth until April before he was to report in early June. It ended up being a mad scramble to get it all scheduled, especially because the SA required him to see his dentist four weeks after the procedure to sign off that it was healed. In retrospect, I would have scheduled it to be done over his Christmas or spring break senior year, rather than waiting until the last minute before he reported as a plebe.