When it comes to wisdom teeth, most people know that not everyone needs them, and that the surgery to remove them makes your cheeks puff up like a chipmunk. We decided to put together a list of facts about wisdom teeth to help people learn more about their “third molar.”
5 Facts About Wisdom Teeth
1. Wisdom teeth have existed for 15,000 years — A skeleton discovered in France in 1911 which was believed to have lived during the Magdalenian period (12,000-18,000 B.C.) showed researchers a set of teeth that were the start to what we now know as wisdom teeth.
2. Wisdom teeth can produce stem cells — Japanese researches discovered in 2008 that stem cells could be gathered from wisdom teeth, meaning that individuals can choose to preserve their teeth in order to use stem cells later in life.
3. Wisdom teeth appear between the ages of 17 and 25 — While the old wive’s tale says that we as human develop our wisdom teeth when we “get our wisdom,” in reality we really only start to see our wisdom teeth around the ages of 17 to 25. Now how many 17-year-old kids are really that “wise,” anyway?
4. Some people are born without wisdom teeth — 35% of our population never even develop their wisdom teeth. Which leads us to number 5…
5. One day, humans will evolve past wisdom teeth — Because more and more people are born without wisdom teeth, many researchers believe that humans are simply evolving away from them.
If you think you’re experiencing any sort of pain or discomfort due to emerging or impacting wisdom teeth, contact us!