Your dentist is the best person to ask if your wisdom teeth need to be removed. That said, there are some things you can consider before talking to your dentist, or if you don’t want to have them extracted.

Wisdom teeth, also known as adult or 18-year molars because they are the last permanent teeth to erupt (and third molars for their position), are normal parts of a healthy mouth. But for many people, there is not enough room in the jaw. Science speculates that because humans don’t need to chew as much on our modern diets, our jaws don’t expand as much as they used to during childhood, and don’t develop room for these molars. Something that supports the idea that these molars are no longer required is that around 35% of people don’t have them at all.

Having impacted molars means that they are not growing in correctly, … Read more