Surgery was necessary to treat a rare case of an impacted wisdom tooth growing directly beneath the left eye socket of a high-school student, as the growth might have affected her vision, said Su Chun-yang (蘇竣揚), a doctor at Changhua County Christian Hospital.
The girl last year complained of a lisp due to bloated and suppurated gums, and pain that had begun extending toward her neck, Su said.
She was referred to the hospital by a clinic, which said that suppuration of the gums could lead to cellulitis, Su said.
Photo copied by Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
Computed tomography scans showed that the girl had an impacted wisdom tooth just under her left eye socket, a condition that had caused a cyst to develop in the maxillary sinus, he said.
Su used the marsupialization technique to drain the cyst, he said.
The cyst was left to drain for a year before the tooth was removed using piezosurgery — a process that uses vibrations to cut bone — Su said, adding that draining the cyst caused the tooth to shift outward by 1cm.
At 18 years old, the girl was within the optimal age range to have impacted wisdom teeth removed, as such procedures have fewer complications with patients aged 15 to 19, Su said.
Impacted wisdom teeth normally do not cause trouble and doctors rarely remove them unless they are in areas not easily cleaned, cause pain or could affect a person’s health, he said.
Parents should seek help if their children complain of abnormalities in or around areas where wisdom teeth grow, he added.
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