Removal of healthy wisdom tooth ?!

Removal of healthy wisdom tooth ?

My dentist is telling me he will have to remove a perfectly healthy wisdom tooth merely to gain access to the second molar in front of it which has some decay. I am very unhappy about the idea of removing teeth which are in perfectly good condition, is there really no other way this can be dealt with ?

I have to answer this question to clear up some other posters misconceptions. First of all, wisdom teeth are not "usually removed" just for any old reason. Extracting a tooth, or four in most cases, is considered dental surgery and as with any surgical procedure, is not without some risks. Therefore, most dentist won't go in and just pluck teeth out for the heck of it. Also, that is an unverified myth that the existance of wisdom teeth will cause such force on the other teeth that they will be moved out of alignment. That has never been scientifically proven, yet we still see orthodontists routinely telling their patients to have their wisdom teeth removed simply because somewhere along the line, someone's teeth shifted back out of alignment and that person sued their orthodontist because there is the slight (unproven) possibility that wisdom teeth may have contributed to that action and the orthodontist should have warned the patient of that. So....in order to protect their collective butts, orthodontists usually just recommend extracting all four wisdoms.
Having said all of that, in answer to your question, I would question a dentist that felt he needed to remove a perfectly healthy tooth to gain access to a tooth in need of restoration. Is the wisdom tooth decayed? If it is, then I can understand the rationale. But if the wisdom tooth is healthy, there is no reason to remove it and I would most certainly get a second opinion from another dentist (not in the same dental office) to see if they are more adept at gaining access to the decayed molar. Yes, it's hard to reach some areas but a decent dentist can and should be able to do it without taking out healthy structures!
I've been a dental hygienist for more than 20 years and the general rule of thumb in each office I have worked in is that if a wisdom tooth can come in fully, is accessible to good brushing and flossing and is not decayed, you keep the tooth. If on the other hand, it's still partly covered by gum tissue and can't come in any further because it's pushed up against the tooth in front of it bacteria will seep under the gum and cause decay OR if it's constantly getting decayed because the patient can't keep it clean, then it needs to be removed.

I hope this will help you make an informed decision. Good luck.