{"id":809,"date":"2026-08-04T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smilehawthorn.com.au\/the-wisdom-tooth\/?p=809"},"modified":"2026-08-03T21:54:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T11:54:45","slug":"wisdom-teeth-in-your-early-20s-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smilehawthorn.com.au\/the-wisdom-tooth\/wisdom-teeth-in-your-early-20s-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisdom Teeth in Your Early 20s: What You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It’s Dental Health Week (3\u20139 August), and this year the Australian Dental Association is putting the spotlight on Australians aged 18 to 25 through its \u2018My Smile\u2019 campaign. It’s a stage of life packed with change \u2014 moving out, studying, starting work, learning to budget \u2014 and oral health is often the first thing pushed down the list. One issue that quietly catches up with a lot of people in this age bracket: wisdom teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are Wisdom Teeth?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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Wisdom teeth are your adult third molars \u2014 the very last teeth to come through, usually appearing somewhere between 18 and 25. By the time they arrive, your jaw has often finished growing, which is part of why they cause so many problems: there’s frequently just not enough room left for them.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

What Does \u2018Impacted\u2019 Mean?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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A wisdom tooth is impacted when something stops it pushing all the way into the mouth \u2014 most commonly a lack of space between the tooth in front and the jawbone behind. Instead of coming through cleanly, the tooth ends up stuck half in the mouth and half under the gum. \n

\nThat partial eruption creates a pocket where food and bacteria can collect, which is why impacted wisdom teeth are linked to a cluster of problems: infection, pain, gum disease, tooth decay, ulcers, and in some cases cysts.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How We Check Your Wisdom Teeth<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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A visual exam only tells part of the story \u2014 wisdom teeth spend a lot of their troublesome years still under the gum. We’ll usually recommend an X-ray (often an OPG, a panoramic image of your whole jaw) to see exactly where each tooth sits, the shape of its roots, and how close it is to nerves and other structures nearby. That image is what actually determines whether a wisdom tooth needs to come out, and how straightforward that will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Wisdom Teeth Are Removed<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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Not every wisdom tooth needs to go. Extraction is usually recommended when a tooth is impacted, decayed, has caused repeated gum infections, carries an ongoing risk of decay or gum disease because it’s so hard to clean, or is affected by a cyst or tumour.\n

\nRemoval can be done by your general dentist or by a specialist, depending on complexity, and can take place in a dental clinic or hospital setting. Some patients choose additional sedation \u2014 conscious sedation or a general anaesthetic \u2014 particularly for more involved extractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t Wait Until It Hurts<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\nWisdom tooth problems tend to build slowly and then flare up suddenly \u2014 often outside business hours, right when you don’t want them to. If yours haven’t been checked in the last couple of years, Dental Health Week is a good prompt to get it sorted before it becomes an emergency.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tips for maintaining good oral health<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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