Some Wisdom on The Third Molars

Without a doubt, getting my bottom wisdom teeth extracted was the worst experience of my life.

There is a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania by the name of Gouldsboro. Have you heard of it? Probably not, as the main feature of the town is a little hole-in-the-wall bar called the Flying Dutchman.

This is the town where I had my bottom wisdom teeth extracted by a general dentist that did not offer sedation. As I lay at the mercy of this dentist using all his strength and body momentum to crack, break and slowly pull out my bottom wisdom teeth I thought to myself, “Why do I have these teeth anyway?” along with many other thoughts that cannot be written in this blog.

There was a great article written in 2007 by Rachel Cooper, a Scienceline.org writer, explaining how wisdom teeth are believed to be the product of evolution. Our ancient ancestors had a much tougher diet and over time, developed a need for these third molars.

As we progressed and technology advanced, our food became softer and easier to chew, eliminating any need for the wisdom teeth. Evolution has also caused our mouths to become smaller which causes the wisdom teeth to become impacted.

After some more digging I found a blog written by the doctors at Denver Metro Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. The post explains impacted wisdom teeth in detail. “An impacted tooth simply means that the tooth grows inside the jaw due to lack of space,” the article reports.

On occasion, people have enough space in their mouth for the wisdom teeth to grow in fully, but there are health risks involved with this. The popular one seems to be pericoronitis due to the difficulty it takes to clean.

The blog also explains that people with a visible wisdom tooth have an increased risk of gum disease. To avoid these and post surgical complications, it is recommended to have the wisdom teeth extracted early, before developmental problems occur, typically before the age of 25.

Without a doubt, getting my bottom wisdom teeth extracted was the worst experience of my life. It was as though I was in a scene from “A Little Shop of Horrors” with Steve Martin looking down at me with a devious grin and eyes as dark as the pain he was about to inflict.

Lesson learned, and when it came to having my top teeth extracted I left it to the professionals. It was a pain and worry free experience that went as smooth as the milkshake my mom bought me afterwards. For more information on wisdom teeth and wisdom teeth extraction visit the website of Denver Metro OMS here.