And what exactly does ‘impacted’ mean?
Any tooth has the potential to become impacted—that is, emerge in some oddball direction that crowds other teeth. But the most famous culprits are third molars, the last-to-emerge wisdom teeth.
Not many mouths can accommodate wisdom teeth. They often wind up pressing against their neighbors, ultimately pressuring the rest of the teeth to disrupt their alignment.
That’s not a wise thing to let happen.
Wisdom teeth get our attention when they cause pain and swelling. Routine X-rays, beginning around age 12, alert us to problem potential before wisdom teeth start getting disruptive. X-rays can let us know whether those mighty molars must go.
About Yuri Kaneda, DDS
Dr. Yuri Kaneda was born in Japan and immigrated to the US when she was 4 years old with her family. She lived in Ohio, Nebraska, and Illinois before finally settling in the San Diego area. A graduate of Bonita Vista High School, she went on to the University of California Berkeley where she obtained her Bachelors in Microbiology and Immunology. After working for 2 years in growth plate research at University of California San Diego, she went to the University of California San Francisco Dental School for her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. Upon graduation, she returned to San Diego where she worked as an associate in the practice of Drs. Morimoto and Yaryan, her childhood dentist. She then started her own practice in 1995 and has been at her present location since 1999 which happens to be across the street from her high school!
