Wisdom Teeth

Written By Brian Matthews Recently, my stepson Mark had his “wisdom teeth” removed. Mark is 12, but according to the oral surgeon, he has the jaw of a 17-year-old. This was just the information Mark needs to further boost his growing sense of being. I imagine Mark being in school bragging to a girl at lunch that his jaw is really old enough to be in high school. Girls like it when you talk about the relative skeletal ages you possess, right? I wish I knew where he got the jaw of a 17-year-old. I have the toenails of a man three years post mortem and the teeth of someone 27 years older than me. This is why I finally made an appointment to go to the dentist. I wasn’t avoiding a visit to the dental professionals because I didn’t … Read more

While there is no way to verify this, 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 … Read more

I wanted to say that I am not messing around here. Oral surgeons and dentists really can change your life for the worst. If it happened to me, it can happen to you. I have suffered 24/7 everyday since my wisdom teeth were removed. My head is always pounding and it’s a struggle to live normally anymore. My quality of life is substantially diminshed and I am not doing what I want to be doing with my life right now. I see doctors all the time, try all sorts of medications, do a lot of research, and it doesn’t change anything.  For 1 in 100 people wisdom teeth removal causes permanent nerve damage. That’s pretty good odds that you or someone you know could be damage pretty substantially. Also you or someone you know could have a headache that does … Read more

It’s clear that there are large differences between what American and European doctors think with regards to the removal of wisdom teeth.   Since 1997, dental surgeons inEngland have been following guidelines stating to not remove wisdom teeth unless there is evidence of disease. Further inflammation of the gingivia surrounding the crown of a tooth also warrants removal. It is also common practice in England for doctor’s to cancel any unnecessary planned operations. These guidelines also save millions of dollars each year. To view the entire article on guidelines in England click here http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/320/7239/890/a.pdf

This story is a month old, but I wanted to make a comment about it. Having general anesthesia is not without complications. Leejay Levene, 18, died during a visit to a Waterloo dental surgeon to have three wisdom teeth removed. Surgery was required because the teeth were embedded in the jawbone. Due to the nature of a potentially painful procedure, many patients often prefer the use of a general anesthetic. Leejay’s mother, Shirley, said that Leejay was nervous about the surgery since he always breathed through his mouth and was concerned that he might not be able to breathe properly. Leejay had just gone under general anesthesia when something went horribly wrong. He started to struggle for breath. The ambulance arrived within seven minutes, with a more advanced unit arriving five minutes later. The anesthesiologist had been attempting to resuscitate … Read more