Before the Cave men learned to create fire they may have had to chew tough raw foods. Their jaw may have been larger to accommodate the teeth needed to complete chewing. Our front teeth, incisors, are used to cut the food. The canines; side teeth, eyeteeth, fangs are used for tearing. The molar teeth. The teeth in the back of your mouth are the ones responsible for grinding up the food. The Cave man needed three or four grinder teeth to accommodate the type of foods they were eating. We do not and therefore most often do not grow these teeth anylonger. The humans of today have a shorter jaw line than the cave man. Third molars usually do not have room to grow into place. Not having adequate room may create crowding of other teeth, partially erupted wisdom teeth, and/or teeth locked into the jaw bone.
If your jaw can not accommodate the third molars and thy are partially erupted it could and most likely at some point will cause a condition we call pericoronitis. (around the crown infection) . Bacteria gets under the flap of gum tissue covering the partial exposed tooth. Because bacteria does not stay where it grows. They are mobile! So, the bacteria that is festering in that gum flap over the wisdom tooth is harboring bacteria that can spread to other parts of your mouth, aspirated into your lungs and cause respiratory infections, travels through out your blood stream and creates your immune response system to work over load. This condition is most always very painful. It is easy to treat. Sometimes with antibiotics, debridement of the area (scraping the necrotic tissue away) and local disinfectant or antibiotic. Most dentists will recommend that the tooth be extracted.
Teeth that have erupted and are present in the jaw may be just fine. Except that they have pushed the other teeth forward and caused them to overlap each other. That possible poses a whole new set of problems that will not get addressed here. Most often though these teeth are positioned in the jaw in such a way that they are not easy to keep clean. Meaning, Bacteria festers on these teeth. Again, Bacteria is mobile. It will not stay tucked away in the back of your mouth. Also, malpositioned teeth (crowed) do not allow natural cleansing. And make it harder to keep them clean.
Wisdom teeth that are locked inside your jawbone sometimes can stay there happily for many years. However, they can migrate, cysts can form around them and cause you to loose bone, if the wisdom tooth is adjacent to another tooth’s root it can grow together with the other tooth then someday both teeth may need to be extracted together causing a huge boney defect and requiring more treatment. Also, over time a tooth that is embedded did in the jaw can become ankelos, or make it’s self part of the jaw.
There are many more reasons a dentist, or hygienist, may suggest that the third molars, wisdom teeth be extracted. A second opinion is always a good idea. And, many insurance companies will cover a second opinion office visit. It’s best not to just blow it off because it doesn’t hurt. Your dental professional wants to treat you comprehensively and proactivily. We go to school to study this stuff!
