A wisdom tooth is a molar that belongs to the third set of molar teeth in your mouth. The set of wisdom teeth have four molars each, located at four corners of the jaw. You may get the wisdom teeth in your teens or after around the age of 20 years.

Wisdom teeth can be useful if their position is proper in the jaw. However, many times their position is not normal. In such cases they cause damage to the other teeth, nerves and the bones in your jaw. If you face this problem due to your wisdom teeth, your dentist will recommend you to remove the wisdom teeth.

Sometimes the wisdom teeth are not able to come out of the gums as there is no space in the jaw. In such cases, the wisdom tooth remains inside the gum or emerges out only partly which causes an impacted wisdom tooth. It is difficult to clean the impacted wisdom tooth and it may cause decay or pain and needs removal.

You may experience the following symptoms if you have impacted wisdom teeth: pain and swelling of the gums around the area; redness and bleeding of the gums; bad breath; difficulty in opening the jaw; and bad taste in the mouth.

Following are the causes of the impacted wisdom teeth: small jaw size - if you have a small sized jaw, enough space is not available to accommodate the wisdom teeth and hence they cannot find a proper position; and sometimes the wisdom teeth grow at an angle in the jaw instead of the normal position. They may then push the rest of the teeth and cause pain.