Wisdom Teeth Removal - Why Bother?
Wisdom teeth. Most of us know what it is ever since we were but wee bairns. Personally, I found out about them way before the last of my milk teeth left my person. This is most likely because I always hear adults talk about about their wisdom teeth and how they feel the need to have them removed right away.
Which also made us know of the pain wisdom teeth causes. So, if you have had your wisdom teeth extracted, or if you are just planning to get wisdom teeth removal, maybe you are a tad curious as to why the need to remove them at all? Mind you, what I will be talking about here is partly based on fact, and partly based on old wives tales.
Wisdom teeth are naturally occurring. This much is surely true. However, they grow only when we reach adult hood (hence the wisdom moniker). If it occurs naturally, how come it causes so much pain? Well, you have evolution to thank for it. You see, evolution has made us humans sleeker. We walk more upright, our bodies are less hairy, and our mouths are not as huge as it once was. What's that you say? Our mouths were huge? (And you thought your daily oral hygiene was too much a hassle to do). Before utensils, man had to chew off large gobs of meat of Mammoth bones, so our teeth had to be huge. But over the course of millions of years, man started cutting their food into more manageable sizes. This made our mouths evolve into something smaller. Probably to save on physical real estate and energy. However, though our mouths were evolving, no one told our teeth. So up til now, our wisdom teeth keep growing, even if our mouths have no space left for them.
And this is why it causes pain.
Because when our wisdom teeth start growing without space to grow into, their only course now is to push on our existing teeth. Which of course is a painful experience. And sorry to say to these hard headed molars, we also have no need for them. Hence, removal.