Wisdom Teeth and Extractions

It is believed by anthropologists that your wisdom teeth evolved from our diet that included foods that were tough to chew such as roots, nuts and leaves. Since more chewing is needed with these substances, more teeth were required, too. Furthermore, it wasn’t uncommon to lose teeth by the time you reached your late teens or early twenties, which is usually when wisdom teeth erupt.

Unfortunately, in today’s world, the wisdom teeth don’t serve much of a purpose. Evolutionary biologists refer to wisdom teeth as “vestigial organs,” which means they are a part of the body that has no function.

Most commonly, the wisdom teeth erupt or begin to cause problems between the ages of 17-24. Though eruption can occur without concerns, if there isn’t proper space for the wisdom teeth, their presence will have adverse effects on the rest of your teeth and result in pain.

When you or your child begin seeing us, we can monitor your wisdom teeth before they start to erupt. The signs of complications include improper position, not enough space to grow, partial eruptions, blocked eruptions and cysts. If we notice any of these indicators, we’ll advise removal.

If the wisdom teeth are impacted and not removed, you can experience infection, tumours, cysts, decay, gum disease and damage to other teeth.

Each person’s situation is unique. We’ll assess your wisdom teeth and take diagnostic measures such as X-rays to determine their position. You may only need some of your wisdom teeth removed, while others may need all of them extracted. Once we evaluate your wisdom teeth, we’ll let you know how we’d like to proceed. You can have the procedure completed under local anaesthetic in our practice, or if you prefer, you can have it under general anaesthetic in hospital.