Can your wisdom teeth become infected while they are surfacing and if so how can you tell the difference between the pain from wisdom teeth surfacing and infection?

The dentist will know better if you have a periapical x-ray of the wisdom tooth area and will immediately confirm the infection of tooth. Yes, it can become infected around the gums while coming in. That is pretty common. The best thing to do is keep it very clean. This will be a bit painful at first, but then as it gets clean, it will feel better. Your best option is to go to a dentist and most likely have them removed. Very few people have room for their wisdom teeth. You can tell the difference between pain from erupting and pain from an infection because pain from eruption will be pretty much constant and not too many things will make it better.