No reason to extract wisdom teeth

[The Straight Story]

No reason to extract wisdom teeth

United Press International

Friday, April 29, 2005


NIJMEGEN, Netherlands, Apr 29, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A review team in the Netherlands finds no evidence justifying the extraction of healthy wisdom teeth.

Dr. Dirk Mettes of Radboud University Medical Center and his colleagues studied the literature and found no surveys of adults on wisdom teeth removal. They found two studies of teenagers involving 200 subjects and said neither showed any great benefit from the removal of wisdom teeth.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_24392.html

[Lisa0825]

1. I KNEW IT!!!

All four of mine came in just fine, and dentists STILL tried to talk me into getting them removed, but I refused! I have always said it was a racket!LOL

[petron]

13. Kept mine too...

...against the advice of my dentist who over many years tried to get mt to remove them.

I love having 32 teeth!

:7

[SmokingJacket]

2. Do they really extract healthy wisdom teeth?

I thought they only did that if they were impacted.

I still have all mine...

[noonwitch]

7. I don't think that they do

I didn't have room for mine, so I had to have them removed because they were impacted. Both of my siblings still have theirs, because they never had any problems with them. I also had my bi-cuspids removed when I was in junior high, in order to accomodate braces.

I do still have my tonsils and adenoids, however. I only had tonsilitis a couple of times as a kid. My sister, who had it at least once a year, also still has her tonsils. Our pediatrician was cautious about the procedure. He felt the risk of anesthesia outweighted the risk of gettting tonsilitis, which can be treated easily with antibiotics.

[Dulcinea]

18. Your story sounds like mine.

I too had the same teeth removed for the same reasons.

I also still have my tonsils & adenoids despite having strep throat just about every year!

[JerseygirlCT]

17. I had had two removed (abscesses)

but they were one up, one down. My dentist told me that the other two would continue to grow without an opposing tooth, and that would further screw up my screwed up bite. So I had them removed.

For me, it was a relief. After many abscesses in a row, resulting in either root canals or extractions, I was happy to get rid of a couple more that might be troublesome, too.

I now have all of 4 teeth more than my 5 yo! (Had had 4 removed as a child before braces -- big teeth, little jaw).

[Lisa0825]

23. Yes, many do!

They assume you will have problems with them, and recommend everyone have them removed. One dentist actually told me I should have them out, because it's hard to brush properly that far back!

[RebelOne]

3. I had to have mine removed.

They all came in very soft and finally rotted. There was no way to save them.

[bpilgrim]

4. told the military if they were healthy leave'm in

no regrets to this day =)

peace

[carnie_sf]

5. I did the same

and I still have them today

[scaryhockeydad]

10. Wisdom teeth

Oh yes there is!! I had all 4 which have been in my mouth for years. However, one became cracked and needed a crown. Cost of Crown = $1000. Multiply that by 4 as all will eventually need crowning. Cost of extraction of all 4 = $1600. Easy decision to make and the drugs were great.:toast:

[Maru Kitteh]

6. I have 1 and a half out of four

1 upper - healthy
1 upper - broken by ex-husband on what should have been his last day wasting valuable oxygen on earth
2 lowers - pulled because they made my head feel like it was sitting under a large truck

Nobody should have body parts removed unless they're causing some kind of ruckess. It just seems like common sense.

[LibDemAlways]

8. My dentist fed me some bullshit line

about how they are fine now but might crowd my other teeth when I hit 70. I told him I'll take my chances.

[rockymountaindem]

9. Mine were growing in sideways.

Is that a justification to have them removed ;)

[uberotto]

11. I'm having mine removed this Friday...

I've had them for 40 years, but now they are starting to cause me some problems. Mostly due to the fact that it is so difficult for me to brush all the way back there without doing damage to my gums.

The dentist gave me a choice of using a special tooth brush or having my wisdom teeth removed. I chose the latter because I hate using the special brush.

While I agree that there really isn't any benefit to having your wisdom teeth removed when you are young, If the practice ever stops, you will probably (possibly) see that many, if not most, people will have to have them removed later in life.

[OrlandoGator]

12. All four of mine were impacted and below gum level.

One of them got rotten and I was spitting up pieces of it for days.

I believe the theory behind removing otherwise healthy wisdom teeth is so that their growth doesn't cause the other teeth to go out of alignment. But in my case, it was a medical necessity to have them extracted.

[elehhhhna]

14. I have all 4, & my Dentist said last week that it's not the W. teeth that

"crowd" the ones in front of them, but the motion of chewing exerts forward pressure and that's why they crowd forward.

[DARE to HOPE]

15. Teeth growing in straight and strong is a sign of bone health...

Weston A. Price was a Cleveland dentist in the early 20th century. Practicing roughly between the 1930's and the 1950's, he noticed that dental health worsened with each decade. He decided to take a trip around the world, and kept copious notes on the indigenous diets of each cultural group he visited, comparing that with their dental health. The results of what he found are very interesting, especially comparing what was in our early English/German diet.

www.westonaprice.com


Also, remember the phrase "He has grown 'long in the tooth?'" I have noticed, since changing the fats in my diet, and the fat working with the calcium series to build really strong teeth, there has been a line which started at the top of my eye teeth, that has now reached the bottom edge, with the fuller tooth grown in. Cool, huh? I have come to believe that Deepak Chopra and prescient scientists are right after all, that every cell in our body is replaced sooner or later, that our bodies are living entities, even the bones, teeth and hair, and that we can use nutrition to build them stronger! :-)

I am hoping so. I have not been back to a dentist since I found out how many lies I had been told, even by "progressive" dentists, like about the silver in my teeth that was mostly mercury, and sooner or later would crack my teeth! After adding the coconut oil into my life, my teeth are stronger and gums healthier than they were even a year ago.

[demodonkey]

21. Um... "long in the tooth" refers to horses...

Their teeth continue to grow or push out from the root as they age (needed due to high-roughage diet horses eat and the shape of their jaw). This is part of a process which allows us to tell how old a horse (or isn't) is by looking at its teeth, which gives rise to the phrase "looking a gift horse in the mouth".

A horse with long teeth (usually also leaning more forward in the bite) is generally older. The process goes on until the horse (usually in its late 20s - 30s) uses up all the tooth remaining in the gums.

[FreedomAngel82]

16. I still have mine

When I had braces I had two upper teeth (I looked like a lil vampire haha) and so my dentists pulled two teeth in the back to make room for the upper one's and then I got my wisdom teeth and they've never bothered me. They just moved on in. My brother has a caviety in one so they might remove them. :shrug: So that's nice to know.

[CO Liberal]

19. Impacting Was a Pretty Good Reason For My Dentist

Since mine were all impacted, they were all removed.

[ComerPerro]

20. Mine grew in, they seem fine

My dentist told me that as long as they grew in without complication or pain, then there would be no reason to have them removed.

I agreed wholeheartedly, I figure I have had enough surgeries in my 23 years...

[newportdadde]

22. Mine were impacted.

Damn mouth was so small I wore retainers I had to expand each evening for like 3 years just to get room for the rest of my teeth. Good news is, I was actually missing one Wisdom tooth, just never developed.

[bikebloke]

24. Have two impacted

Every spring and autumn, they used to get sore around equinox time. But it's been a while since that has happened. The dentist said they're not in the way of anything, so no worries. But eventually they'll have to be pulled. I told him, if it ain't broke; don't fix it. Leave them alone.