I came across an interesting article titled “‘Not tonight, I have toothache’: how evolution sold us short” published in February 16, 2013, in the Times in London and written by Hannah Devlin. The article talks about evolution and how it relates to wisdom teeth, which is a topic I don’t usually bring up on this site/blog since it is controversial.
The idea goes that wisdom teeth were important for our ancestors because their diets consisted of a lot of tough and chewy foods. As their other teeth wore down, the third molars, played an important back up role as additional teeth to use. In addition, the idea is that as humans evolved their brains became larger and their laws became smaller leaving less room available for teeth to grow. Earlier hominids (our ancestors) had very large back teeth in long jaws; however, evolution began selecting for increasing brain size. Since the jaws have shrunk over time as a result, wisdom teeth often become impacted.
In the article Professor Alan Mann, an anthropologist at Princeton University, describes how impacted wisdom teeth, in which the wisdom tooth remains partially buried in the gum, are a result of changes in the shape of the skull and jaw bones during the evolution of humans. A quote appears by Dr. Mann saying
“Evolution acts to produce function not perfection…”
Dr. Mann later goes on to suggest that tooth pain can lead people to have fewer children and hence suggests that painful wisdom teeth may decrease our reproductive fitness.
The article states his anecodote:
“Imagine, a partner suggests a bout of reproduction. The other partner, plagued by an impacted molar, says, ‘Not tonight dear, my jaw is killing me’.”
I don’t know if I buy his potential story. Dr Mann suggests that new genes are being produced that are causing less third molars to appear. This may be true but it is hard to say for sure as some other factor could be going on such as suggested by this story Dental Anesthesia May Stop the Development of Wisdom Teeth.