Why Wisdom Teeth are a Pain

Why Wisdom Teeth are a Pain

http://www.livescience.com/17127-wisdom-teeth-human-ancestors-diet.html

Scientists are studying how culture interacts with our biology and anatomy. One such cultural change was the move away from hunting-gathering toward farming. Anthropologist Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel at the University of Kent in England thinks this change in diet influenced the anatomy of our faces and jaws. She investigated museum skull specimens from 11 human populations from across the world. People who had a hunter-gatherer lifestyle had longer, narrower jawbones. The agricultural societies had shorter jaws with more crowded and misaligned teeth. Von Cramon-Taubadel thought with our modern diet of softer more processed food, the shorter jaw does not accommodate the size of our teeth, leading to painful wisdom teeth. The results were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 21, 2011.

I had all four of my wisdom teeth extracted last summer before they even broke through my gums. They take them out early before they move your teeth around. The wisdom teeth weren’t painful but the after effects of the surgery were not pleasant.