It has been said that the number of people who grow wisdom teeth is increasing although it does not render any function on any food eating processes. Lucky for those people who do not have wisdom teeth at all, as they will never have to deal with the potential complications that a wisdom tooth might induce. In some cases, the eruption of wisdom teeth might cause tooth decay, bleeding and wounded gum, infection, and even serious oral disease. This is where wisdom tooth extraction  Reston becomes necessary.  

In the past, wisdom teeth played a major role in tearing and grinding the food especially when the primates of before did not have the dining tools for this functionality. Now, as the human species evolve and have been using utensils, tearing and grinding food has become easy, and the final set of molars, or known as the wisdom teeth, has gone irrelevant and not useful.  

A study shows that 35 % of adults do not have wisdom teeth. Why is this so? This is correct. In fact, according to a study, this might cause by the following reasons: 

The wisdom teeth may have been already removed in the previous extraction surgery. 

They are present but are hiding. Wisdom teeth can be always present hiding beneath your gum and have not fully erupted yet. Also, they may never erupt when they grow sideways, also known as impacted teeth. They may remain dormant in the jaw until they erupt or torn your gums apart.  

It is genetic. Not having a wisdom tooth might be related to the individual’s genes. Princeton University has made a study that found out that evolution plays a major role in the absence of wisdom teeth. This is closely related to what we have mentioned above: as the human species evolve, we need a larger space for the brain and this leaves the jaw giving up some space, affecting the evolution of the number of teeth that the human species need. The University of Pennsylvania discovered a mutation in the chromosomes that are called MYH16 that explains the evolutionary trait that paved the way how modern humans to grow larger brains in every stage of evolution.  

Contrary to what evolutionary accounts stated, there are also scientists who believe that the absence of wisdom teeth is due to the dietary shift of human species. Humans in the past had to eat nuts and hard foods and thus having a final set of molars was necessary. However, the modern diet of humans does not require consistent consumption of hard foods, this leaving the third set of molars or wisdom teeth irrelevant.  

Should you be worried when you have a wisdom tooth or two?  

There are cases that the wisdom teeth have fully erupted and are functional, and the doctor will not necessitate removal. However, when you have impacted wisdom teeth, you will need to eventually remove them as they may create oral complications in the future.  

If you are experiencing symptoms of the impacted teeth such as headache, bleeding gums, swelling, it is important that you see your doctor and seek medical advice.