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Impacted tooth

• Overview
• Symptoms
• Treatment

Alternative Names:

Tooth - unemerged; Unemerged tooth; Dental impaction; Unerupted tooth

Symptoms:

• Pain or tenderness of the gums (gingiva) or jaw bone
• Unpleasant taste when biting down on or near the area
• Visible gap where a tooth did not emerge
• Bad breath
• Redness and swelling of the gums around the impacted tooth
• Swollen lymph nodes of the neck (occasionally)
• Difficulty opening the mouth (occasionally)
• Prolonged headache or jaw ache

Signs and tests:

Your dentist will look for enlarged tissue over the area where a tooth has not emerged, or has emerged only partially. The impacted tooth may be pressing on adjacent teeth. The gums around the area may show signs of infection, such as redness, drainage, and tenderness. As gums swell over impacted wisdom teeth and then drain and tighten, it may feel like the tooth came in and then went back down again.

Dental x-rays confirm the presence of one or more teeth that have not emerged.

• Review Date: 8/8/2007
• Reviewed By: Michael Kapner, D.D.S., General and Cosmetic Dentistry, New Rochelle, NY. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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