There is a good reason this question is being asked: you don’t hear all your friends and family boasting about how awesome it is to have three sets of molars instead of just two. Yep, it’s true, the great majority of them will instead be telling you stories about what it was like to get their wisdom teeth removed.
Even though the great majority of people have absolutely no need to remove their wisdom teeth or risk serious damage to their other teeth, some lucky few people can safely keep their third set of molars.
Wisdom teeth are the last set of molars to erupt from the gum line. They are called wisdom teeth because they are said to hide beneath the gum line until you gain a level of wisdom in your late teens or early twenties. However, people are reported to get their wisdom teeth at almost any time in their lives. In the distant past of human history chewing coarse foods constantly as well as poor oral care meant that often times by the time wisdom teeth erupted, it was just in time to replace damaged or decayed teeth. Nowadays, we have far superior oral health, and our food is generally much easier to chew, so wisdom teeth are not beneficial; it is actually the opposite, they are typically quite damaging.
While in rare cases wisdom teeth come in perfectly fine and cause no trouble, the majority of times, wisdom teeth grow in a way that would push against your second molars and cause pain and shifting of the teeth. This can lead to infection, a crooked smile, and severe pain. If you have any more questions, feel free to give us a call today!