We all hope that advancing age will bring wisdom. But as you enter adulthood you may notice a form of “wisdom” coming in that may not seem so favorable: your wisdom teeth. This final set of teeth, or your “third molars”, can often cause overcrowding, discomfort, and other dental issues because most of us don’t have enough room for them. Unfortunately, many wisdom teeth become trapped under their gums, run into neighboring teeth, or grow in crooked. Although some patients’ wisdom teeth come in properly, they can be difficult to keep clean since they are so far back in the mouth. To avoid future complications, we remove wisdom teeth for many of our patients to protect the alignment and health of their teeth. For the majority, wisdom teeth appear to actually cause more harm than they are helpful, so why do we have them?
Ancient Diet
Anthropologists believe our early ancestors’ diet explains the presence of wisdom teeth. They survived on a diet of fibrous, rough foods consisting of roots, nuts, and meat that required more teeth (and thus larger jaws to accommodate them) to grind down properly. Over time, our diet has become softer and less coarse; we have also learned to prepare and cook food to make it a lot easier for our teeth to chew and our bodies to digest. Many experts hypothesize this is why our jawline has become smaller over the years, thus creating less room for our third molars. Wisdom teeth are now classified as vestigial organs by evolutionary biologists. Kind of like the appendix!
Did You Know?
- Wisdom Teeth Develop After Birth
- Their Development Timeline Helps Scientists
- You Might Not Have 4 Wisdom Teeth
Your third molars aren’t formed in utero like your other teeth. Instead, they develop around your 10th birthday and erupt through the gums (or at least try to emerge) between 17-25 years of age, a time when you are considered “wiser” than as a child.
Since wisdom teeth don’t usually erupt until a person’s late teens or early twenties, anthropologists have used their presence to estimate the relative age of skeletons.
Around 20-25% of people have only 1-3 wisdom teeth, and some never develop them at all. It is estimated that approximately 35% of the modern-day population do not have any wisdom teeth. Lucky ducks!
Do You Need Your Wisdom Teeth Removed? We Can Help!
Since our mouths develop a bit differently than our ancestors, you might need your wisdom teeth removed to protect your oral health. Dr. Brigman and Dr. Bejar can determine if you need them extracted. Schedule your next six-month checkup before your wisdom teeth become a pain—literally! Contact our expert team at Helotes Family Dental if you have any questions or concerns regarding your wisdom teeth.
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