Wisdom teeth appear as the last tooth in the mouth and begin to erupt around the age of 16 years. This has been called the age of wisdom although that parallelism would be questioned by many. Depending on the reference source, up to 90% of the population does not have enough room for wisdom teeth to erupt into a position which is accessible for good hygiene.
A commonly asked question is, "Why do we have wisdom teeth if there is no room in the jaws for them?". The answer has to do with diet. According to the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, in a article entitled, Management of Asymptomatic Impacted Wisdom Teeth, Vol. 34 October 1996, the author notes that in Neolithic man the average, highly abrasive diet caused attrition of the teeth resulting in a reduction in the size of the molars from front to back. This decrease in size from the abrasive nature of the food ingested allowed for the forward migration of the teeth and adequate space for the eruption of the wisdom teeth. With the arrival of processed foods and a reduction in the amount of chewing necessary to reduce the food for swallowing, less wear occurs. This coupled with a decrease in the loss of teeth as a result of a decrease in cavities, requires modern generations to address impacted and partially impacted wisdom teeth.
When the wisdom tooth cannot be cleaned, infection results. It is the potential for infection and the potential for this infection to spread to other teeth that usually motivates the patient to have the wisdom teeth removed. Other commonly sited justifications for the removal of wisdom teeth like the potential for them to cause cysts, tumors, or cancer or the potential for them to cause crowding and shifting of the other teeth in the mouth are highly suspect. Although many believe that wisdom teeth cause crowding, this has never been definitively proven in any well controlled scientific study. Additionally, the potential for them to cause cysts or tumors is very, very low. Although removing a wisdom tooth can weaken the jaw for a short period of time post-operatively, leaving a wisdom tooth in does not cause the jaw in the area to be inherently weak. As mentioned before, cancer occurring in wisdom teeth is a rare phenomenon.
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