Bad cavity in wisdom tooth . . . have it pulled or let it fall out?

[rootzdawta]

So I have a pretty bad cavity in my upper right wisdom tooth. The dentist has been urging me to pull it but I know that if I pull that one I'll have to pull the lower right one eventually and honestly, the longer I don't have to deal with it, the better. The thing is the upper right wisdom tooth is crumbling. Pieces of it are breaking off little by little. I *think* it may fall out on it's own. Any danger in just leaving it to do so?

[limette]

Just the head exploding pain if it gets infected.

Both my dh and I had one pulled. They were breaking apart and got infected. Dh's was so bad that he was curled up in fetal position at the dentist's waiting for them to pull it.

I put mine off for almost 3 years because the pain was never really bad and it would go away for months at a time. Then a month or so ago I woke up and it felt like my face had exploded. I was nauseous and shaking from the pain. I called the emergency line and they pulled it that afternoon.

Seriously don't wait until it gets that bad. Ours were straight pulls, took seconds to come out and cost around $100.

Oh and it won't fall out on it's own. Wisdom teeth have really long roots. It'll just keep crumbling until it gets infected. I think there was only 1/2 of mine left when I had it pulled.

We both have dental phobias and the pain made us get over that really fast. The extraction was embarrassingly easy.

[pianojazzgirl]

I would absolutely get it pulled. I can't imagine that it could possibly just fall out without a LOT of pain involved at some point. Not to mention that tooth infections have the possibility of affecting other areas of your body. The longer it stays in your body the more likely that it will cause problems.

I had one wisdom tooth extracted recently and it really wasn't that bad at all. My dentist has also recommended having the corresponding top wisdom tooth pulled at a later date, but honestly I think it will be a long time before that becomes an issue.

[an_aurora]

Get it pulled. I just had oral surgery ~3 weeks ago, and one of the teeth was a molar that had been filled previously, the filling fell out 2 years ago and it was fine. TWO years later it got infected and OMG horrible pain. Instantly it was better once it was pulled.

[rootzdawta]

Oh, thanks everyone for the replies!

I'm going to set up an appointment to get it pulled. (((sigh))) I may as well have the bottom one done at the same time. That one is a more involved extraction since it's impacted but I will already be getting the x-rays so why not get it over with?

Thanks again!

[Ammaarah]

I had my wisdom teeth pulled with just novocaine and nitrous and it wasn't too bad. I had a mega-cavity in one of the wisdom teeth too, because it was so crowded I could barely brush it.