Lifestyle

10 Facts About Wisdom Teeth & Whether They Should Be Extracted Or Not

2018-04-27 , 5:07 pm

Last Updated on 2022-09-11 , 11:26 am

Anyone who has been through NS would see wisdom tooth as the licence for a two-week MC: it’s not uncommon to walk into the office early in the morning and see a few soldiers on MC due to an extraction of wisdom tooth.

So, what exactly is a wisdom tooth, and why do most people choose to extract it, or even all four of them, when they were young? If you’ve been asking yourself this question, or you suddenly feel pain near your jaw, you need to know these ten facts.

Wisdom teeth are the last set of teeth (total of four) that erupts between 16 to 21 years old

When we were between 6 months old to 33 months old, our baby teeth erupt, breaking through the gums. Soon, between 6 years old to 13 years old, these baby teeth fall out, allowing our permanent teeth to erupt.

As a kid, you should remember the pain when the teeth fell out, eh? For some reason, when we reach the age of 16 to 21, another set of teeth erupts: the wisdom teeth, comprising four teeth at the deepest end of our mouth.

Wisdom teeth are called wisdom teeth because they erupt between the age of 16 to 21

People often associate this age as the period when one gains wisdom—that explains the name. Other teeth have fancy technical terms too (e.g. central incisor, lateral incisor), but wisdom teeth, technically known as the third molars, are the only one with a nickname.

Wisdom teeth might or not might not erupt correctly

Our permanent sets of teeth are usually erupted normally—even if not, they usually won’t cause any pain. However, wisdom teeth are a set of mischievous teeth: instead of erupting up or down like normal teeth, they could go sideways instead due to the limited space. When this occurs, you’ve got an “impacted wisdom teeth”.

Impacted wisdom teeth are the ones that cause a toothache

If you’ve regularly felt pain in your jaws, you might have an impacted wisdom tooth. If a wisdom tooth is not erupted properly, they might stay in your gums or erupt halfway (or even in a weird position).

This creates pockets of spaces for bacteria to breed, leading to infection and if left untreated, affects even the neighbouring teeth. This infection is what causes the pain, not your wisdom tooth “cutting through” your gums!

About 72% of the population has impacted wisdom teeth

About 72% of Swedish people between the age of 20 to 30 have at least one impacted wisdom teeth: while this is not a full representation of the Singapore population, the number should be close. In other words, you’ll definitely have friends who have impacted wisdom teeth!

Wisdom teeth are removed early before they’re fully formed

Here’s why NSFs like to remove their wisdom teeth: between the age of 16 to 21, the wisdom teeth are still developing, so they can be removed easier. If the wisdom teeth are fully developed and you want to remove them, it would be riskier and the recovery period would be longer.

Wisdom teeth that are not impacted won’t cause any issue

So far, we’ve been looking at impacted wisdom teeth: so what happens if your wisdom teeth erupt properly? Then congrats: they won’t cause you any issue.

The debate on whether to extract healthy wisdom teeth is still ongoing

You see, you never know whether your wisdom teeth are going to grow out fine: so, is it necessary to remove them even before they’re developed? There have been debates, but overall, it’s all up to individuals. At least for NSFs, some would choose to remove them for the two-week MC!

What if you “die die” don’t want to extract your wisdom teeth?

Remember #4? That the toothache caused by your impacted wisdom teeth is due to infection? You would need to pay more attention to your dental hygiene, since the root cause is bacteria and not your teeth. But the next point might just convince you to go for an extraction.

Singaporeans can use Medisave to extract their wisdom tooth

In fact, you may even use your Medisave account to pay for your immediate family members’ extraction!

The cost is usually around $200 to $500 per tooth (cannot use Medisave if it’s extraction without surgery), and if a surgery is required (which is more common and painless as well but it’ll take slightly longer), it can be about $1,000 to $1,200 that is fully payable by Medisave. In other words, it’s technically “free” to remove those nasty and problematic teeth – all you need to do is to fill up a form.

But of course you need to be a working adult with funds in your Medisave lah.

In addition, if you’ve not been to a dentist for more than six months, then you need to watch this to the end:

Featured Image: Dooder / Shutterstock.com