Happy Thursday ya surgeons,

Calling all our readers in Arkansas- dental health can only go up from here.

A WalletHub study recently ranked Arkansans dead last in dental health.

Topping (Hah, see what we did there) the rankings? Apparently cheese and deep-dish pizza are good for your teeth.

Here’s today’s surgery plan:

Ebola was the biggest pandemic concern and Kanye and Kim said they would be together forever…that all turned out to be true, right?

But in the world of dentistry…something very important happened…

Well that’s not exactly what happened…but in any case, a special group of oral surgeons were on notice…

So this group of oral surgeon superheroes came together…

This is the task force put together by the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons

And all those very smart surgeons with their big brains and secret identities put their heads together and came up with this👇

And that👆…That right there is the AAOMS White Paper on Third Molar Data

Even if you are NOT extracting third molars in your practice, there’s enough good data in this sucker you need to know.

Because you, as a general dentist, are often the gatekeeper

And sometimes, well, it can be a struggle to get them in the chair:

And one of the most common responses to having retained third molars—

Which is fine, but patients have to know the risks.

Just watch out for these-

…just know it ALWAYS gets more complicated;

Good things come to those who wait…

…Definitely does not apply to wisdom teeth:

That should settle all concerns, right?!

Some patients obliviously fall in the category of being high risk for nerve damage…(and what to look out for radiographically is worthy of a whole other email)

but overall the risk of damaging the IAN is very low…

Yeah, very low risk.

What if the teeth are erupted?!

Very much easier said than done.

Because third molars causing perio pockets is very common.

And so is caries on erupted third molars:

All of this leads to one conclusion….

Most of the the time it’s a good idea to get those thirds out

So remind your patient:

…and thank the AAOMS for being the superheroes that they are.

Some random findings to keep you entertained until your next patient

Some trivia to help give your patient realistic expectations:

In November, we talked about when Oprah says to treat cracked teeth, so let’s see if you can remember a very important stat:

Here’s a hint:

We’re going through the 5 radiopacity wrestlers that will show up on your radiographs…and how to actually remember them.

Thanks for reading. Let us know how it went

luv u,

tipsy dentistry😘😘