Koreans call wisdom teeth "love teeth" because they grow in late adolescence and early adolescence. Many people believe that excess teeth should be removed.
The first wisdom tooth was recorded in medicine 15,000 years ago, growing underground under the gums of a European woman. Researcher Alan Mann, Princeton University, commented that wisdom teeth are "the scar of human evolution". In the history of human evolution, the brain developed very quickly, tripled its original size, causing the skull size to change, the jaw structure to shrink and there was no room for wisdom teeth to grow. However, because the genes that determine the structure of evolutionary teeth are separate from those that control brain development, people are having problems with wisdom teeth.
The number of wisdom teeth growing in a person's life can be one, two, three, four. Some people do not have wisdom teeth. Some people also grow more than 4 wisdom teeth, called supernumerary teeth (supernumerary teeth). Genetic factors such as jaw bone size can determine a person's number of wisdom teeth, says Dr. William McCormick, associate professor of clinical practice at West Virginia College of Dentistry.
The world medical documents have recorded many cases of abnormal eruption time of wisdom teeth. The ancient philosopher Aristotle noted in his book The History of Animals: "There was an old woman over 80 years old - in the last stage of her life - but the wisdom teeth had just begun to grow, causing a lot of pain. happened to the old men ".
In 2017, the Guinness Book of World Records recorded Mr. Robert W. Gray (USA) as the oldest person to have a wisdom tooth when he was nearly 95 years old. He discovered that a new wisdom tooth erupted while brushing in the morning. According to Dr. William, most wisdom teeth erupt in the age group 17-25, but "still can not predict when teeth arise". The doctor once treated a 65-year-old patient who had to have a denture inserted but the wisdom tooth still came out.
Wisdom teeth are the source of stem cells. According to William Giannobile, editor of Dental Research magazine, Japanese scientists who have studied successful stem cell generation from living cells of wisdom teeth, have surprising regenerative potential. Research in mice by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine showed that stem cells taken from the teeth could be used to treat corneal damage caused by infection or trauma. "There have been studies using stem cells from wisdom teeth to treat neurological disorders and eye diseases," Dr. Pamela Robey, of the National Institute of Dental and Skull Research, told CNN.
Wisdom teeth are called with many different names. In Japanese, the wisdom tooth is called "oyashirazu" (the tooth that the parents don't know), because most grow when a person is an adult, no longer living with their parents.
In the US, wisdom teeth preventive surgery is quite common. Many people extract their wisdom teeth, even though they have no pain or problems arising from this tooth. Whether or not wisdom teeth should be extracted is also controversial.
There is a perception that most people will have problems with their wisdom teeth in the future. "It is difficult to give an exact number, but at least 75-80% of oral cases are not qualified to maintain the wisdom tooth until the end of life," Dr. Louis K. Rafetto said. He said that in the US, on average, each year there are about 3.5 million wisdom teeth extraction surgeries, equivalent to 10 million wisdom teeth are extracted.
For some people, wisdom teeth are "slow blast bombs", affecting biting, chewing food, causing tooth erosion, tooth decay, can seriously lead to cysts, nerve damage, ... However, dentist Jay Friedman says only about 12% of wisdom teeth cause pain. He compared this low rate with 7-14% cases of appendicitis, emphasizing that the appendix can only be removed when the patient has pain. Dr. William has a similar thought, saying that wisdom teeth should only be extracted when infected, an abscess appears.
"Think of the possible risks of wisdom tooth extraction, even though serious complications such as a jaw fracture or death are extremely rare," he said.
