Permanent teeth

Permanent teeth are the second set of teeth formed in humans. There are thirty-two permanent teeth, consisting of six maxillary and six mandibular molars, four maxillary and four mandibular premolars, two maxillary and two mandibular canines, four maxillary and four mandibular incisors.

The first permanent tooth usually appears in the mouth at around six years of age. The first adult teeth are the permanent first molars that come through the gums at the back, right behind the last 'milk' molars. These first permanent molars are the most important teeth for the correct development of an adult dentition. Up to the age of thirteen years twenty-eight of the thirty-two permanent teeth will appear. Grown-ups have a set of 32 permanent teeth, of four different teeth types. Sixteen at the top and sixteen at the bottom jaw: 8 incisors, 4 canines, 8 premolars and 12 molars.

The full permanent dentition is completed much later. The four last adult teeth, one at the back of every arch will appear between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one years. This is the reason they are named wisdom teeth. Wisdom teeth, officially referred to as third molars, are usually the last teeth to develop. They are located in the very back of your mouth, next to your second (or twelve year) molars and near the entrance to your throat. Third molars are usually completely developed between the ages of 15 and 18, a time traditionally associated with the onset of maturity and the attainment of "wisdom."

In many people, wisdom teeth come in with no problems. If the teeth are healthy and they come in straight, then most of people do not even realize the teeth are there. Unfortunately, in some cases, they cause problems that require the wisdom teeth removal (extraction) by the dentist.

Problem caused by wisdom teeth does not necessarily mean pain. Most people do not experience pain with their wisdom teeth. Problems are more often silent and progress slowly. By the time a problem does become evident to a person, substantial damage has often already occurred. Specific problems include pain, bacteria, impactions, damage to adjacent root, crowding, pericoronitis (inflammation around the crown of a tooth) and others.

Pain is the most common complaint associated with impacted wisdom teeth. A person may have soreness or pain in the back part of the jaw, ear ache, sore throat or pain in the side of the face. The impacted wisdom tooth itself may be the source of the pain or there may be an infection associated it. This generally happens because these partly erupted teeth are difficult to keep clean, and the accumulated food particles cause the gums around the tooth to get infected. If untreated by removing the wisdom tooth, the infection may cause destruction of the bone surrounding the wisdom tooth and will affect the neighboring tooth.

Ex.25. Insert prepositions where necessary (for, around, of, on, into, in, without):

Wisdom teeth commonly do not have enough room to properly erupt ________ our mouth where they can become fully functional and cleansable teeth. This lack ______ space can result in a number of harmful effects _______ your overall dental health. When a tooth cannot erupt into proper alignment, we call it impacted, which simply means “stuck” ______ an improper position.

If you do not have enough room in your mouth ______ your wisdom teeth to erupt into proper position they can cause a multitude of problems, such as: infection, damage to adjacent teeth, cysts, crowding etc.

_________ enough room for total eruption, the gum tissue _______ the wisdom tooth can become irritated and inflamed, resulting in recurrent pain, swelling and problems with chewing and swallowing.