Why do wisdom teeth come out so late?
Many people have wisdom teeth between the ages of 17 and 30. Often this leads to problems - the jaw cannot accommodate the "extra" teeth and the person suffers from pain. And in adulthood, they often have to be pulled out.
But why don't wisdom teeth appear in childhood along with the rest of the teeth? Let's explore why wisdom teeth came into existence during evolution and what function they served for humans.
Scientists from the Institute of Human Origins (USA) conducted a study of this issue, examining its origins in the evolution and development of children. The results of the study are published in the scientific journal Science Advances.
There is simply no room in a child's jaw for wisdom teeth to come out. Only as they grow older, when the jaw expands, and additional space appear.
Today, however, many people's jaws don't continue to grow as fast as they did in ancient times.
Ancient people ate tough foods that needed to be chewed - nuts, raw vegetables, wild animal meat, which is much tougher than the meat of domestic animals. The jaws have adapted to such food.
In ancient times, wisdom teeth appeared earlier for another important reason. When ancient people wore down or lost their molars due to hard foods, wisdom teeth took their place.
“This is kind of a backup for a person who could have lost one molar,” Livescience quotes Los Angeles dental surgeon Steven Kupferman as saying.
But these days, most people no longer lose their molars during childhood. Therefore, there is no hurry with their appearance. If a person has lost a molar in childhood, then the wisdom teeth are, as it were, programmed to emerge and fill the gap.
Dentists often remove wisdom teeth these days. After all, the appearance of wisdom teeth can cause pain in an already crowded jaw. This can lead to gum infections later in life. After all, gums recede with age. In addition, tooth decay often affects wisdom teeth.
Wisdom teeth may not be removed for two reasons. First, this can be related with age. If a person is over 30 years old and his teeth do not hurt, then dentists prefer not to remove wisdom teeth so as not to damage nearby nerves. Secondly, if a person has a “spacious jaw” and enough space, then there is no point in removing wisdom teeth either. In men, this is most often the case in the case of high testosterone and, as a result, a powerful manly jaw that can accommodate more teeth.
In any case, the human diet has changed a lot. This also leads to genetic changes. For many people, the wisdom tooth remains in a "sleeping" state. And some people do not even have it in its infancy.
It is estimated that 92% of the world's population has a complete set of wisdom teeth. However, there are genes that determine whether a person will have wisdom teeth. In some peoples, for example, among the inhabitants of the Tasman Islands, these "extra teeth" grow in almost everyone. Did you know that indigenous people of Mexico do not have wisdom teeth at all? This is due to genetic changes that occurred about 400 years ago and divided people into "wise-toothed" and "non-wise-toothed".
This is most likely due to the fact that some peoples have learned to cook food well and the mutation completely deprived them of an extra four teeth.
It is also possible that some groups of ancient people did not hunt, but mainly ate soft plant foods. Their jaws did not need many teeth and decreased in size over time. It may well be that representatives of this particular group of people are distant relatives of modern Mexicans. But it is worth emphasizing that these are just theories. But the fact that Mexicans don't have wisdom teeth is undeniable.
