Arleen

Hi Sandra:

I don't believe I've had super eruption of my wisdom teeth, but you story sounds very familiar to me.

I had 2 fillings replaced almost 2 years ago and that completely threw my bite off. My teeth no longer fit together properly, they'd hit into each other, eating was difficult and everything started getting sore.

The second dentist I saw, shortly after this happened, made me a lower nightguard which included my wisdom teeth. I didn't end up wearing it much as it was hard acyrlic and hurt my teeth. The third dentist made me an upper, softer nightguard, which I wore to sleep. Occasionally I'd wear it for an hour during the day.

At the time I didn't know I had TMJD and kept getting referred from one dentist to another, with no one able to help. Well, I was finally referred to a prosthedontist. He said because the second nightguard didn't include my wisdom teeth, that they were now too high. They would need to be grinded down 1/2 to 1-1/2 mm. Depending how sensitive they were to the grinding and how much was needed, I may need caps on them. I would also need little adjustments made to some of my other teeth too to correct my bite.

This was a while before I found this board and all the wonderful people and useful information on it. I was at the end of my rope and was prepared to have this work done. Then I read that no teeth should be adjusted before your bite has been stabilized with a splint (or words to that effect). Several people also mentioned that unless you are wearing a splint almost 24/7, your teeth will not erupt. They won't erupt because when your chewing, or throughout the day, they will come into contact with other teeth. At least this is what I've heard from a number of sources. Perhaps someone else can address this better than I an.

I started thinking about what the prosthedontist wanted to do, and went back to look at the first nightguard I'd had made, which was very shortly after the problem started. Well, it turns out my wisdom teeth were high back then too, so my sense it that they've always been high, and they functioned perfectly well in my mouth and met the upper wisdom teeth perfectly. This dentist was wrong about everything he said to me.

There are also a number of people who's TMJD symptoms started by having a wisdom teeth pulled. TMJD can also be exacerbated by pulling a wisdom tooth. Pulling it will not necessarily lessen your TMJD symptoms, and COULD make them worse.

Take care,
Arleen

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Arleen