Types of Impacted Wisdom Teeth: Mesial, Vertical, Horizontal & Distal

How Impaction Type Affects Surgical Complexity — and Cost

The type and depth of impaction are the main drivers of how involved your surgery will be. A soft tissue impaction with a favourable angle may need little more than a careful extraction, while a horizontal, full bony impaction calls for a planned surgical procedure — lifting the gum, removing a small amount of bone, and sectioning the tooth so it can be lifted out gently in pieces. More complex cases also take longer in the chair and involve slightly more post-operative swelling.

That is why fees are quoted as a range rather than a single figure. At Vera Dental, the surgery fee for surgical wisdom tooth removal is $1,350–$1,550 per tooth depending on complexity (excluding consultation and X-rays), with horizontal and full bony impactions at the higher end of the range. All-in with consultation and X-rays, the total is typically $1,470–$1,670. A simple (non-surgical) extraction — for a tooth that has erupted normally — is $150–$350.

How Your Impaction Type Is Diagnosed

You cannot tell your impaction type by feel — a horizontal tooth can sit silently for years while a shallow soft tissue impaction aches every few months. Diagnosis happens at a consultation: your dentist examines the area, then takes an X-ray that shows each wisdom tooth's angle and depth at a glance. For deeper or trickier positions — especially teeth lying near the nerve canal in the lower jaw — a 3D scan maps the tooth's exact position before any surgery is planned.

At Vera Dental, a consultation is $40–$50, and you will leave knowing exactly which type of impaction you have (if any), whether removal is recommended, and the precise fee for your case — no estimates, no surprises. You can contact our Tanjong Pagar clinic to arrange an assessment; we are a 3-minute walk from Tanjong Pagar MRT.

What Can Happen if an Impacted Tooth Is Left Untreated?

Not every impacted wisdom tooth causes problems — some stay quiet for a lifetime. But because a trapped tooth is hard to clean and presses on its neighbour, a few issues come up often enough that dentists monitor every impaction, even painless ones:

What Removal Involves, Type by Type

Whatever the type, removal is done under local anaesthesia and you feel pressure but no pain. For a soft tissue or favourable vertical impaction, the dentist frees the gum over the crown and eases the tooth out — often only slightly more involved than a normal extraction. A mesial or partial bony impaction usually needs a small gum flap and a little bone smoothed away before the tooth is divided and removed. A horizontal or full bony impaction is the most methodical: the tooth is sectioned into two or three pieces and lifted out gently, the site is cleaned, and dissolving stitches are placed. Even complex cases are typically completed within 30–60 minutes.

Healing follows a similar pattern for every type — swelling peaks around day 2 to 3 and most patients are back to normal routines within a week, though deeper impactions can sit at the longer end of that window. Our day-by-day wisdom tooth recovery timeline walks through exactly what to expect after surgery.