What Is The Point In Wisdom Teeth?

Of course, for most of us, growing to an age where we might accept and understand the world a little better won’t bring the kinds of biblical misfortunes suffered by those figures. For us, nature has devised a much more insidious little punishment: months of extended oral agony. 

What’s the point of wisdom teeth?

Technically known as your “third molars”, your wisdom teeth are the last set of teeth to grow. They turn up right at the back of your mouth – uncomfortably so for many of us – usually in early adulthood. 

But other than inducing some empathy for any grizzly teething babies in the area, what’s the actual point of gaining these extra chompers so late on? It’s not like we suddenly start eating new, extra chewy food around the age of 21 – is it? 

Well, no – but, potentially, we used to. “We have teeth that were adapted for eating a very different diet than the one we eat today, at least in Western societies,” pointed out Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, a professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University and author of What Teeth Reveal About Human Evolution, in 2017. 

See, when people talk about “paleo” diets, they tend not to know just how bad our forebears had it: dinner back in prehistory consisted of raw meats, raw vegetables, and hard nuts, all eaten without the benefit of even a stainless steel knife to ease the process. They would chow down on bones, for the nutritious marrow inside, and if modern chimp diets are anything to go by, they might even have chomped on the odd bit of wood now and then. 

For all those foods, a new set of grinding teeth towards the end of your life would be very helpful. Today, though, they’re a problem. “Soft diets do not stimulate jaw growth,” Guatelli-Steinberg explained, “and teeth, especially our third molars […] become impacted.” 

Should we have wisdom teeth removed?

Look at ancient jaws, and it’s rare to see overcrowding – even including wisdom teeth. In fact, these last four additions to the mouth would have been a helpful addition, providing extra support and protection for the bones in our ancestors’ faces.  

But modern jaws are much smaller than their prehistoric counterparts, and all 32 teeth don’t necessarily fit inside. While some of us still do grow wisdom teeth without issue, most of us aren’t so lucky: up to 80 percent of adults have at least one wisdom tooth that fails to erupt properly, usually due to a lack of room in the jaw. 

That’s not just annoying – it’s potentially dangerous. “Partial eruption of the wisdom teeth allows an opening for bacteria to enter around the tooth and cause an infection, which results in pain, swelling, jaw stiffness, and general illness,” points out WebMD. “Partially erupted teeth are also more prone to tooth decay and gum disease, because their hard-to-reach location and awkward positioning makes brushing and flossing difficult.” 

Even for those few of us whose wisdom teeth come in without a hitch, the process is likely to be painful and drawn-out – all of which raises the question: are they really worth it? 

For a lot of us, the answer to that is “no”. Some 80 percent of wisdom teeth in the UK end up being removed, according to one 2016 analysis, and the figure is even higher in the US, where the procedure is often recommended as a preventative measure.  

But some experts think we’re getting a little too extraction-happy: “Not more than 12 percent of impacted teeth have associated pathology,” notes one 2007 paper – a proportion roughly “the same as for appendicitis (10 percent) and cholecystitis (12 percent).”  

“[Yet] prophylactic appendectomies and cholecystectomies are not the standard of care,” the authors point out. “Why then prophylactic third-molar extractions?” 

Moreover, wisdom tooth extraction isn’t without risk. You might develop an infection, or dry socket – a complication that occurs when a blood clot fails to form after the extraction, leaving bone and nerves exposed, delaying healing, and producing a disgusting smell inside your mouth. In rarer cases, you might end up with severe nerve damage: “Wisdom teeth entrapped in the jawbone are often close to nerves,” explains WebMD. “Sometimes these nerves can be bruised or damaged during the tooth removal process.”  

“The result is a numbness (called a paresthesia) of the tongue, lip, or chin that can last a few days, weeks, months, or may even be permanent.” 

A novel use for wisdom teeth

Wisdom teeth may have outgrown their original usefulness, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely useless. If you do have your wisdom teeth removed, there’s a way they can really live up to their brainy moniker: by acting as a source for life-saving stem cells. 

“Studies have proved that adult third molar can be a rich source of dental pulp stem cells,” notes one 2013 paper. “These post-natal dental stem cells have the potential for self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation.”  

“Researchers have found the pulp of teeth to contain chondrocytes, osteoblasts, adipocytes, and mesenchymal stem cells,” the authors continue. “All of these cell types hold enormous potential for the therapeutic treatment of: Neuronal degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s Disease; chronic heart conditions such as congestive heart failure and chronic ischemic heart disease; periodontal disease and to grow replacement teeth and bone.”

“Multi-potent tooth germ progenitor cells from discarded third molar are one of the candidates for cell-based therapy to treat liver diseases and offer unprecedented opportunities for developing therapies in treating tissue repair and regeneration.” 

Clearly, then, these are valuable little nubs – and for most of us, we don’t even want them. We pay to have them removed, and the procedure usually happens in early adulthood – perfect timing for stem cell harvesting.  

That’s great news for stem cell research: “Wisdom tooth extraction is one of the [most] common procedures,” the authors point out. “If done in a sterilized setting, we can freeze the cells derived from these teeth for years until it is required.” 

Today, it’s fairly common to be able to bank your wisdom teeth, storing up stem cells in case of any drastic health emergencies in the future. It may not be what Mother Nature intended for our final set of teeth, but it’s a pretty awesome upcycle. 

“Finally,” the 2013 paper concludes, “the good-for-nothing painful wisdom tooth may have some worth.”