Recently a 38 year year old man took his own life while he was waiting to have a wisdom tooth removed. This occurred in Southampton in England in April 2019. The man had been on a waiting list on the National Health Service (NHS) to have his wisdom tooth extracted. He came down with a severe toothache in January 2019 and saw a dentist.
After seeing the dentist the man began to take large amounts of painkillers. His mother began to save up money so they could afford private treatment for the extraction. At the time of the death it was estimated the mother had saved about 900 British Pounds of the 1,500 British Pounds needed for surgery. In the weeks leading up to the death the co-workers of the man said he was always asking to work overtime. After his mother did not hear from her son for a few days, police forced entry into his residence and found him dead. The death was ruled to be a hanging and suicide.
As has been discussed on this site, it is not always wise to ignore the pain caused by wisdom teeth. Wisdom teeth when left in can lead to many risks as discussed on the risks of keeping wisdom teeth page. While wisdom teeth pain causing someone to take their own life is certainly rare, people committing suicide due to pain used to occur more frequently years ago. Historically, trigeminal neuralgia has been known as the suicide disease because people with the condition would sometimes end their lives to stop their suffering.
Source:
Joe Middleton, “Man, 38, hanged himself after suffering excruciating pain while waiting to have wisdom tooth extracted on the NHS, inquest hears,” October 21, 2019, DailyMail.