Why Wisdom Teeth Are Getting Stuck?

People often have jaws that are too small for all 32 teeth to fit. Our jaws often just don’t have the space to accommodate all of our teeth which results in poor alignment of the teeth and along with crowding. 28 teeth are often the most we have room for.

Impacted wisdom teeth are third molars at the back of the mouth which do not fully erupt into the mouth. They don’t have enough room to develop normally and properly as the jaw may be too small to fit the wisdom teeth.

200-300 years ago, our ancestors had much bigger jaws than we do with fully functional third molars (wisdom teeth). They needed big, strong jaws to chew the uncooked vegetables, meat and tough foods that often made up their menu.

Changes came in diet as we moved from farms to cities and started having softer diet, consuming cooked foods like beans and cereals that didn’t demand such a high level of mouth strength and require less chewing and less effort.

Over time, our jaws became smaller in response to these dietary changes and this likely led to the problem impacted wisdom teeth which is so common today.

Although wisdom teeth are unnecessary teeth, over 80% of the modern population now gets impacted wisdom teeth.

Our jaws and dentition has shortened as today our meals are softer and easier to chew as a result, there just isn’t room for wisdom teeth. This is why wisdom teeth are often impacted or misaligned in the jaw when they come in. Such impaction of the wisdom teeth often led to infection, pain, and other dental problems.

Dentists in India and dentists in Delhi are routinely counseling patients on the complications that impacted wisdom teeth may have and to keep good ongoing oral hygiene practices.

Human beings and their evolution have caused an abrupt change in the way the human dentition had been evolving.

Changes in the human diet, food preparation, and technology have made meat and other foods tender and easier to chew, again reducing the need for a large jaw or dentition.

The advent of modern dentistry and the ability to remove impacted wisdom teeth helps to give a healthy life afterwards.

Nowadays impacted wisdom teeth extractions are part of the regular treatments in Dental Clinics in Delhi due to the small jaw size.

Posted by- Dr Suprriya and Dr Shriya