I had four wisdom teeth removed. I believe there was some nerve damage done to the lower right, which my dentist did not warn me about. The lower right jaw is pretty numb. As a result, I am having trouble eating, chewing, and brushing my teeth. Is this a dental emergency? I don’t know what the treatment is in this case.
Anna
Dear Anna,
This is not a dental emergency for reasons I’ll explain in a moment. Your surgeon should have given you a risk assesment before you agreed to the surgery. In most cases. the nerve is far enough away from the root of the lower wisdom tooth that there is hardly any risk. However, a few can run quite close to the root. In those cases, dentists tend to overstate the risk. I don’t understand why your dentist did not mention this at all.
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do but wait this out. There are three groups of severity when it comes to nerve damage.
- Bruised – In this case, the numbness will last for about a month, after which feeling will return.
- Crushed – A crushed nerve has to grow new nerve fibers. I would expect that to take about a year.
- Severed – If your dentist severed the nerve, it won’t re-grow and the injury will be permanent.
Getting an x-ray should give you an idea of where you stand with this.
This blog is brought to you by Glenpool Dentist Dr. Ryan Noah.