[justrepublican]

58 years and I have all of mine. Better than all my other molars and my dentist constantly wants to remove one. No, I say it still works.

[Secret Agent Man]

Well, I had two coming in horizontal, and two coming in at 45 degree angles. Had no room in my jaw for a third set, they’d have been pushing my other teeth forward and that would have been a mess.

[Vendome]

Guy is a crackpot.

Had my Wisdom Teeth not been cut out I would have the smile of a typical Englishman.

[skr]

I figured if my wisdom teeth behaved themselves, they could stay. Decades have passed and so far, so good.

[Terry Mross]

My last day in the Navy I was checking out at various departments and when I got to the dentist I told him I had one more wisdom tooth that needed to be pulled. And believe me, it needed to be pulled. I wanted him to pull it so I wouldn’t have to pay a civilian dentist down the road. Well, the novacain didn’t work. For some reason it simply had no effect on me. I told him to pull it anyway. He had to break in two to get it out. And believe me, before he was halfway through I regretted my decision but it was too late to stop. Not something I’d do again.

[LukeL]

I had mine out and suddenly became a liberal.

[wonkowasright]

Is there a connection between the collective loss of wisdom teeth and our collective loss of wisdom ?

[Smokin' Joe]

My mother still has hers. When the neurologist who claimed to have read her cat scans 'missed' them, it tipped her off that he hadn't looked at the scans. She fired him and got a more competent doctor.

Mine came in angled to destroy my cheeks, and are a memory.

[vbmoneyspender]

I had an extra set of wisdom teeth that never came thru my gums. They used to get infected about every 6 months and I finally had a enough of it in my 20’s and had them removed. Haven’t had any infections since them.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

[Insert my anecdotal story associated with wisdom teeth here]...
and so therefore the doctor is:

A) a maverick genius
or
B) a dangerous whackjob

[Timber Rattler]

This guy is a quack. Biologically speaking, wisdom teeth are there to replace loss teeth over time. Now with fluoridation and people losing less teeth, they become a serious problem for many when they start exerting pressure on the jaw because they have no where to “erupt.” I hurt for years before I finally had mine removed as a medical necessity. So yeah, they need to be removed early to prevent problems later.

[old and tired]

Although you wouldn't know it to look at my teeth, as a youngster I never went to the dentist. Over the years I developed cavities which went unfilled. Two of my worst ones were in my very back molars. As a young 20 something, I finally went to the dentist. He pulled out the two bad molars and two beautiful new wisdom teeth filled in the spaces in no time. Eventually I did have the other two wisdom teeth pulled when I began to get earaches.

I suspect for many millenia wisdom teeth served the purpose they served me - to replace rotten teeth.

[driftdiver]

“claiming at least two-thirds of the millions of wisdom teeth extracted each year at a cost of billions of dollars were removed for no good reason”

There’s a BMW payment that needs to be made.

[IamConservative]

Mine came in straight and I still have them all at 52. However, I can see in part where this guy is coming from. Every dentist I have ever seen wants to extract mine. IMO, all they see is a $1,000 when they see a patient with wisdom teeth.

My wife is lucky to get me to the dentist at all. Any preventative or elective activities are out of the question. If it doesn’t hurt, keep your mitts, pliers and grinders off!