Wisdom Teeth: Keep them or lose them?
Wisdom teeth are typically the final set of molars people get in their early twenties. They develop two in the back on the top gum line and two on the bottom gum line. They are called wisdom teeth, because they come in when the person reaches a mature age. It is said that wisdom teeth date back to the stone age, when peoples’ diets consisted of very rough, hard foods that needed to be ground properly to be digested, making jaws stronger and bigger, leaving more space for 4 extra teeth. Since dentists didn’t exist back then, the wisdom teeth would realign teeth by pushing them back together as they grew in, filling in the spots where teeth had previously been lost due to tooth decay. However, since peoples’ diets have changed over time and foods have become more accessible and processed, mouths don’t require the 4 extra teeth and we now have the need to in general remove wisdom teeth because they can cause realignment of existing tooth structures and jaw problems. (more…)
