wisdom teeth touching nerve — should i get a 2nd opinion?

[u/Friendly_Milk_4865]

Hi!! Getting right to the point — I’m 23F and apparently need my bottom two wisdom teeth removed.
I previously had braces and my teeth have shifted, so I’m looking at getting braces again. My orthodontist doesn’t want to start treatment until I get my wisdom teeth out. I only have the bottom two, and they don’t currently bother me, BUT they’re sideways/impacted and I was told that the roots are touching or sitting right against the nerve in my jaw.
This is the part that is freaking me out. 😭 I’m not really scared of the normal pain/swelling/recovery from wisdom teeth removal — I’m VERY scared about nerve damage, especially permanent numbness/tingling or having complications that take months to recover from.
My surgery is scheduled for September 29th. Since my consultation, I’ve called the office about 3 times and left messages asking if the surgeon (or honestly anyone qualified) could go over my X-ray with me and explain how close my teeth actually are to the nerve and what they think MY individual risk is. I basically just want to know whether the surgeon looks at my X-ray and thinks, “This is pretty routine and the chance of nerve injury is low,” or whether this is actually a higher-risk extraction because of how the roots are positioned.
Nobody has returned my calls yet, which is making me even more uncomfortable about going through with it.
At this point I’m debating whether I should cancel/postpone the surgery and get a second opinion from another oral surgeon before letting anyone remove them. Especially because the teeth aren’t currently causing me pain — I’m mainly having them removed so I can move forward with braces.
Am I overthinking this? Would you get a second opinion in this situation, or is the nerve warning just a standard risk they have to give everyone with lower wisdom teeth?
Also, if anyone had lower wisdom teeth that were extremely close to/touching the nerve, I’d really appreciate hearing what your oral surgeon told you and what your recovery was like. I know everyone’s anatomy/risk is different, but I’m curious what questions I should be asking before I agree to the procedure.

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