Impacted wisdom tooth. Coloured panoral X-ray of the mouth of a patient with an impacted wisdom tooth (orange) in the right lower jaw. The wisdom tooth is growing horizontally, impacting on the molars beside it and could push them out of alignment. It has also lead to the formation of an abscess (ovoid, brown), a pus-filled swelling caused by a bacterial infection at the base of the teeth. If the tooth is not surgically removed, its further growth will seriously affect many teeth in the lower jaw.