Why do we have wisdom teeth?
Five hundred or more years ago, teeth played a useful function in chewing foods. In those days much more chewing was required, and in an effort to accommodate, the jaws grew somewhat longer. Studies have confirmed that jaws were somewhat longer during that period of time and thus provided additional room for the wisdom teeth. In addition as the teeth wore down, as a result of the coarse nature of the food which was available, the biting surfaces became smaller and allowed more room for the wisdom teeth to drift forward into useful position. Today, because of a shorter jaw and other consequences, 95% of the wisdom teeth today are impacted or imbedded.
Adults can have up to 32 teeth. The wisdom teeth are the last to come through, right at the back. They usually appear when you are between 17 and 25. Although sometimes they appear many years later. Nowadays people often have jaws that are too small for all 32 teeth – 28 is often the most we have room for. So if all the other teeth are present and healthy there may not be enough space for the wisdom teeth to come through properly.
Not just a year ago my wisdom was tucked tightly away in my mouth, just below the surface of my gums, bothering no one. And then, last fall, it decided to emerge in the shape of three large, impacted teeth that had to come out. As I lay under the dental surgeon’s tools over the holidays, slowly coming out of my anesthesia, I wondered to myself: where did these teeth come from? Anthropologists believe wisdom teeth, or the third set of molars, were the evolutionary answer to our ancestor’s early diet of coarse, rough food – like leaves, roots, nuts and meats – which required more chewing power and resulted in excessive wear of the teeth. The modern diet with its softer foods, along with marvels of modern technologies such as forks, spoons and knives, has made the need for wisdom teeth nonexistent. As a result, evolutionary biologists now classify wisdom teeth as vestigial organs, or body parts that have become functionless due to evolution. Why do wisdom teeth wait to erupt long after th
While there is no way to verify this theory, some dentists speculate that wisdom teeth are a vestige from the days when our ancestors literally bit off more than they could chew on a daily basis. It’s thought that the Stone Age diet often consisted of coarse, rough foods that required more chewing power. As a result, the jawbones of our ancestors were larger and accommodated 32 teeth with ease. In addition, in the wild, teeth had a tendency to fall prey to decay or get knocked out. If someone lost a tooth, the wisdom teeth would usually push the rest forward to fill in the gap. However, evolution continued and the human diet changed to include softer, more processed foods that were less challenging to our pearly whites and jaws. Losing teeth became less of an issue, and wisdom teeth served less and less
To cause us pain, anguish and suffering! Or so it would seem… No one knows for sure but wisdom teeth seem to be a throw back from our Stone Age ancestors whose diets required more chewing power and whose giant jawbones accomodated 32 teeth for the job! Not to mention dental care wasn’t very high on the list back then- if a tooth fell out due to decay, the wisdom teeth closed the gap by pushing the other teeth forward. Now here we are all evolved with a totally different diet and way better dental care (well, some of us) and yet those pesky wisdom teeth still seem to be hanging around. This is what is called a ‘vestige’- a leftover organ (or structure) that has little or no use for us now, even though it was quite necessary early in the development of our species. So think of wisdom teeth as a token of our caveman days. Awww, isn’t that nice? Since the little buggers have nowhere to go, it means one usually ends up in the dentist’s chair for a simple and very common wisdom tooth extra
