A supernumary tooth is an extra tooth that develops in addition to the normal 32. Supernumary teeth can cause crowding leading to poor oral hygiene and a need for orthodontic treatment. Dentists can spot their development using x-rays. Extra teeth are nearly always extracted as early as possible to prevent shifting and crowding. The most common sites for extra teeth are:
Anterior Palate (just behind the upper teeth) Lower premolar area (behind the teeth directly in front of your molars or back teeth) Wisdom tooth area.
They can be caused by Gardner’s syndrome a rare inherited disorder characterized by polyps in the colon bony tumors and extra teeth.
The extraction of a supernumerary tooth is similar to that of a wisdom tooth—that is an out-patient procedure lasting from thirty to sixty minutes. The patient will go under either local or general anesthesia depending on the severity of the extraction. The dentist will use hand-held instruments to apply pressure on the tooth and rock it back and forth in order to enlarge the socket in which the tooth sits. Once the socket is enlarged the tooth will loosen enough for the dentist to pull it. In cases where the socket will not widen enough the dentist may opt to cut the tooth into sections and extract one section at a time.
