Life is all about moving from one phase to another, such as from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and finally old age. As you move from one phase of life to another, you face many new and exciting challenges that life throws at you. The most exciting phase may seem to be the onset of adulthood when you attain maturity.
Between the 18 to 25 years of age, you experience many serious changes in your overall personality. You get wiser day by day, you understand things better, you have your own strong opinions and beliefs, you get graduated, step in for higher studies or research, get into a brighter career, you might get married and many more. These are some of the life changes you might observe. Along with this, you might even observe some physiological changes. It is during this phase; you experience the outcome of a special tooth through your gum; famously known as the wisdom tooth. Everyone once gets wisdom teeth problems.
As you get them in the age when you are getting wiser, these are also nicknamed as wisdom tooth. Now, according to the science of the human body, you are bound to get four wisdom teeth, two at each corner of the upper jaw and two at each corner of the lower jaw. But, does everyone get wisdom tooth? Read further to know more about it.
Does Everyone Get Wisdom Tooth?
It is not mandatory for everyone to get wisdom teeth. This is because, you may come across some people who don’t get wisdom tooth at all in their lifetime.
Some studies say that, long ago because of mutations in one race, their dental formula is devoid of these wisdom teeth. Hence, some people might not experience, wisdom teeth at all in their lifetime.
Identifying A Wisdom Tooth?
Wisdom tooth usually erupts in early adulthood, between the ages of 16 to 25 years. Usually, when the eruption of a wisdom tooth takes place, you may feel some pain or inflammation depending on the angle of growth of wisdom tooth.
Now, in some cases, one or two of your wisdom teeth may erupt and develop very quickly compared to the remaining ones. Some may take months or even years to fully erupt. In some, you may get all four of them all together, while in some cases you may get one after the other.
Nothing can be promised in this case. It all depends on the individual’s jaw, how much space they have in their jaw to accommodate the last wisdom tooth.
In order to find out the angle of eruption and the state of development of the wisdom tooth or wisdom tooth symptoms, a panoramic X-ray may be carried out.
If the wisdom tooth is causing too much of pain and discomfort, your dentist may advise you get rid of it. People wonder as to what methods to follow for wisdom tooth pain relief.
But, what is the use of wisdom tooth?
Use of Wisdom Tooth
Anthropologists say that in ancient times, wisdom teeth played an important role to help cut and grind through a diet of rough food like leaves, roots, nuts and meat.
But now, as our diet consists of cooked soft foods and now that we have knives and forks to cut through the material, it is completely fine if you extract them.
However, recently it has been discovered that the pulp of wisdom tooth is rich in stem cells. Hence, preservation of wisdom teeth can benefit later in life, when there is a need for regenerating damaged bones, cornea and cardiac muscles, etc.
Do all wisdom teeth need to be extracted? Let us see.
Wisdom Tooth Extraction
Not all wisdom teeth need removal. When it erupts without compromising the adjacent tooth, it can be retained with little concern.
But, under the following conditions, need to extract the wisdom tooth may arise.
- When the wisdom tooth has partially erupted and is causing inflammation and infection, then it is better to remove it.
- Pericoronitis is a condition when harmful bacteria get accumulated under a soft tissue called operculum growing over partial erupted tooth, which leads to swelling and bad taste. In such cases, extraction may become necessary.
- When the angle of erupted wisdom tooth is such that it becomes difficult to keep the adjacent molar tooth clean and free from dental caries, it may become necessary to extract the wisdom tooth.
- When your third molars are impacted, even then extraction becomes necessary.
- Sometimes, considering the posterior position of the erupted tooth, extraction is recommended, since it is hard to maintain and keep it clean. There are upper wisdom tooth extraction procedures as well.
- Even if your wisdom teeth aren’t causing any pain or other problems, they may cause most common problems like decay, infection, and crowding or damage to other teeth.
Whenever, you are considering the removal of wisdom tooth, it is suggested you get it extracted at the initial stage itself, in order to avoid other problems and also for faster recovery.
Regular dental visits are important during your teens and early twenties, because this is the time when your wisdom tooth decay. Also, routine follow up throughout your life is important to clean, healthy and hygienic teeth. Your child’s dental care should be regularly monitored.
Along with dental care, it is important to maintain overall hygiene and take good care of your health including hair, skin and nails.
For any more queries regarding wisdom tooth and wisdom tooth extraction procedure, please write in the comments below.
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