Why are wisdom teeth needed and what is the risk of their removal?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Previously, they got more work, but now they do more harm.

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Hello! Provide information on the role of eights teeth (wisdom teeth). And what is fraught with or, on the contrary, is their removal useful? Thanks to.

Ophelia Sargsyan

Why are wisdom teeth needed?

The role of wisdom teeth is about the same as that of nipples on the body of men - this is what we inherited from Mother Evolution. And there is no practical benefit from them today.

Of course, wisdom teeth used to have more work to do. On the fossil turtles of early Homo, you can see that they flaunt in the dentition on an equal footing with the rest of the teeth. And this is not surprising: the food that our ancestors consumed was very rough, and it took a lot of energy to chew it.

With the advent of tools and fire, food became more tender. Chewing food no longer required such muscular work. A conflict began between development programs: genetic and ontogenetic. The size and shape of the teeth is laid down at the DNA level, and at the moment of their formation inside the jaws, the body still does not know what will happen to it later.

And what happens is this: because of soft food, the muscles and jaw receive less stress and, as a result, do not grow to the size that is needed to fully accommodate the entire set of teeth.

And the teeth, as we remember, have already been formed according to the genetic program. And they have to crowd in tight spaces. Moreover, the rest of the teeth have a head start: they erupt earlier.

When do you need to remove wisdom teeth?

Depending on the location and degree of eruption, wisdom teeth can have a damaging effect of a different nature.

1. Even if the wisdom teeth are in a row and have completely erupted, they can constantly bite or scratch the cheek.
2. Any arrangement of teeth in which hygiene is difficult leads to tooth decay. Moreover, caries hides either on the back surfaces, or, with a particularly "successful" scenario, affects the tooth in front, if the wisdom tooth has cut crookedly and creates a pocket between the seven and the eight.
3. A half-erupted wisdom tooth is fraught with periodic inflammation of the "hood" (pericoronitis) over the crown of the tooth. This happens when, for example, a piece of food gets into the space between the gum and the crown, which leads to an infection. Due to the difficulty in evacuating the products of inflammation, an abscess eventually occurs.
4. If the wisdom tooth is completely in the bone, then it can "push" the teeth in front, as a result of which their crowding is formed.
5. There are cases when an unerupted wisdom tooth provokes the development of an extensive jaw cyst that destroys bone tissue. As a result, with its suppuration, severe conditions arise.

In all these cases, we are considering options for removing wisdom teeth. If you do not have such problems, then perhaps you are in luck and you do not need to delete them.

What is the risk of wisdom teeth extraction?

The first consequence of unsuccessful tooth extraction is infection of the hole. In the process of wound healing, infection can get there, and a fresh blood clot for bacteria is one of the most favorite treats. In mild cases, the process is limited to a hole, in severe cases it develops into an abscess or phlegmon, and this is already serious.

The next trouble is loss of sensitivity along the mandibular nerve. This happens if it was damaged during removal. The reason may be both inaccurate work of the surgeon and an unfavorable variant of the location of the roots relative to the mandibular canal.

Well, the most discouraging complication is a broken jaw. Either the doctor applied excessive force when removing, or the bone itself is affected by an ailment that worsens its properties.

In conclusion: choose your dentist carefully and visit him twice a year. And also follow the advice of experts and do not try to remove the wisdom tooth yourself.