Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Wisdom tooth extraction is a multibillion-dollar industry driven by myths that continue to be spread by the conventional dental profession for immense profit.
Over Spring Break during my senior year in college, I endured wisdom tooth extraction like just about everyone else I knew my age. To top it off, the dentist knocked me out for the procedure instead of using a simple local anesthetic plus laughing gas.
Needless to say, I spent most of my vacation on the living room couch with my mouth loaded with gauze! Recovery from the anesthesia caused even more complications.
Prior to surgery, were my wisdom teeth infected or painful in any way?
No.
Were they causing any sort of problems for me whatsoever?
No.
Then why in the world did I have them out you might ask?
Good question!
As it turns out, over two-thirds of cases of wisdom tooth extraction are completely unnecessary says Dr. Jay Friedman DDS in a study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Of the approximately 5 million people who endure wisdom tooth extraction each year, 11,000 suffer what’s called “permanent paresthesia” which is a fancy name for numbness of the lip, tongue, and cheek resulting from nerve damage during the surgery.
The problem is, wisdom tooth extraction is quite the little oil well of profit for dentists with the costs of such surgeries topping 3 billion US$ each and every year.
Sounds like the standard practice of wisdom tooth extraction is a bit like “finding and filling” cavities that don’t exist, doesn’t it?
Ah, yes. There’s the rub.
According to Dr. Friedman:
Third-molar surgery is a multibillion-dollar industry that generates significant income for the dental profession, particularly oral and maxillofacial surgeons. It is driven by misinformation and myths that have been exposed before but that continue to be promulgated by the profession.
Dr. Friedman goes on to dismantle in very compelling fashion the 5 myths of wisdom tooth extraction.
Myth #1: Most Wisdom Teeth Cause Problems
The truth is that only 12% of wisdom teeth actually cause an acute issue somewhere down the road that requires the attention of a dentist to resolve.
This is about the same rate as appendicitis, but people do not routinely and preventively have their appendix removed like what happens with wisdom teeth!
Myth #2: Early Wisdom Tooth Extraction is Less Traumatic
The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons recommends the extraction of all 4 wisdom teeth by early adulthood before the roots are fully formed to minimize any chance of infection and pain.
The truth is that this early removal of wisdom teeth is actually much more traumatic than a wait and see approach which leaves asymptomatic wisdom teeth in place and only removes them if pathology develops in the future.
Further, complications from wisdom tooth extraction which include dry socket, secondary infection, and paresthesia (numbness of the lip, tongue, and cheek) are less likely to occur in an older patient than an adolescent.
Myth #3: Erupting Wisdom Teeth Crowd Anterior Teeth
Dr. Friedman writes that it is simply not possible for wisdom teeth to crowd 14 other teeth with firm vertical roots.
There is simply not enough force to do so and multiple studies support this fact.
Myth #4: Risk of Problems Increases With Age
A study of 1756 people who kept their wisdom teeth for an average of 27 years found that less than 1% experienced any cyst formation.
There is zero evidence to support the unsubstantiated claim by the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons which states that problems with impacted wisdom teeth increase with age.
Myth #5: Risk of Harm is Small
The list of potential complications from wisdom tooth extraction is long.
- Pain
- Swelling
- Trismus (lockjaw)
- Hemorrhage
- Alveolar osteitis (dry socket)
- Periodontal damage
- Soft-tissue infection
- Injury to temporomandibular joint
- Malaise
- Temporary paresthesia (numbness of the lips, tongue, and cheek)
- Permanent paresthesia
- Fracture of adjacent teeth
- Fracture of the mandible
- Fracture of the maxilla
- Sinus exposure or infection
- Anesthetic complications
Even in cases where there are absolutely no complications whatsoever, wisdom tooth extraction requires 3 days of discomfort and disability while the patient recovers from surgery.
Given that no more than 12% of wisdom teeth ever cause any problems whatsoever at any point down the road, the risk of removal seems great in comparison.
Skip The Surgery!
So, if your dentist tells you or your child that it’s time for those wisdom teeth to come out when they aren’t causing any trouble at all, just politely smile, say “uh, no thanks”, and go home.
You just saved yourself a rather large chunk of change my friend.
Even in cases where you must remove the wisdom teeth, there is no need for antibiotics in most cases. A biological dentist has natural approaches to protect a patient from infection without destruction of the gut with meds.
Which Dentists Won’t Pressure You To Remove Wisdom Teeth?
If you are getting pressured to remove your child’s wisdom teeth, know that a biological dentist does not do this!
I get many requests about who I recommend as a truly holistic, biological dentist who understands the value to long-term health of the wisdom teeth and WON’T take them out unless absolutely necessary.
I recommend Dr. Carlo Litano of Natural-Smiles.com – (727) 300-0044.
He sees young children as well as adults and does phone consultations to help guide those who don’t live near his office. Be sure to tell Dr. Litano that Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist sent you and get 10% off your first visit!
Reference
American Journal of Public Health, Prophylactic Extraction of Third Molars: A Public Health Hazard, Jay Friedman DDS
More Information
How I Healed My Child’s Cavity
Toddler’s Severe Tooth Decay Halted in 5 Days
Resolving Periodontal Problems with Bone Broth
Coconut Oil Stops Strep Bacteria from Damaging Tooth Enamel
What is the True Cause of Crooked Teeth?
10 Signs Your Dentist is Truly Holistic
Avoiding Root Canals with Diet Alone
Could the Cause of Your Illness Be Right Under Your Nose?
Interesting! I also had my wisdom teeth extracted when I was younger. I think it was 5 days before my 23rd birthday, so needless to say my birthday was still somewhat miserable, as I couldn’t eat solid food for two weeks!!
I now wonder whether I should have had it done. On the positive side, it was covered under my parents’ health insurance at the time (I had it done in hospital under general anesthetic), but on the other side… they hadn’t caused me any problems.
My dentist had decided to give me an X Ray to look at them (none had actually sprouted up through the gums yet) and they were all impacted (agreed, they were sitting at a funny angle) BUT as they hadn’t actually tried to erupt, they’d caused no problems. So in retrospect, I wonder whether I should just have left them? Maybe they would have caused problems years down the track, I don’t know (I do know my father’s became problematic when he was in his 40s or 50s).
Skip That Surgery: Most Wisdom Tooth Extractions Unnecessary – The Healthy Home Economist
http://t.co/PdcovenD
You are welcome Sarah! I think your blog is awesome.
There is more to extractions of (wisdom) teeth than meets the eye.
Listen to my radio interview with Hal Huggins DDS, he explains in detail the danger of not correctly executed extractions.
On http://www.desireerover.nl/radio-shows/ go to February 6, 2011
While you are at it, you also may want to listen to dr. Thomas Levy on vitamin C.
Both subjects are clearly interrelated.
Peggy, all your points seem valid to me. Don’t be discouraged because the WAPF diet didn’t fix the alignment problems in your children’s teeth. It would have probably helped more if you had followed the diet even before conception, during pregnancy, etc. But take heart that it has probably prevented your children from serious decay, or any decay in their teeth.
I recently got mine in after getting pregnant. I’m guessing all of those growth hormones made them start coming in at 30. They are only partially emerged on the bottom. No sign of entry on the top. If anything I do feel some crowding, but other than the pain from them coming in no problems to be had.
I had eight (yes, 8!) wisdom teeth removed when I was about 18. Four removed on the left one week then four on the right the next week, none of them erupted. It was the most physically painful experience I have ever had. Local anesthetic (I was fully conscious) and not enough laughing gas. Each visit was about 2 hours in the chair. And they gave no real good reason other than “preventative”. I later learned that in my state, dentist (DDS) often cannot legally prescribe “the shot” to put you out, but oral surgeons can. If I had to have my wisdom teeth removed again, I’d go to an oral surgeon. As for the “preventative crowding” issue, I have large spaces in my gums where the wisdom teeth would be should I still have them.
Our kids will certainly not be getting them removed, unless of course they really need it.
Err 8? Did you actually grow 4 extra teeth! I haven’t heard of that happening before.
I was fortunate to be born without wisdom teeth so I never had a problem but my husband’s wisdom teeth were all lying flat and pushing his other teeth forward. He had them taken out this last year and he suffered first dry socket, then an infection after that and 7 months of sinus infections. He is infection free at this point but he lost so much weight in the process, and hasn’t been able to gain it back, that it’s disturbing.
ALL of my children (so far 3 of the 6) have had their wisdom teeth come in sideways and started to misalign teeth that had been corrected previously with braces. I don’t see any way to avoid having them out. Two years on a strict WAPF diet hasn’t changed the condition of the jaw or teeth at all.
My husband went the other route. His parents couldn’t afford braces for him, and the horrible overlapping and misalignment worsened after his wisdom teeth erupted. He was left with massive cavities, infections and problems. He has had four permanent teeth removed, three root canals and needs much more work.
I will absolutely take my children on a case-by-case basis, but I will not hesitate to remove wisdom teeth that threaten their dental health as much as my husband’s have been a problem for him.
Peggy’s experience gets at precisely the issue I was wondering about as I read these comments: Have people following the Weston Price approach experienced any amelioration in their children’s dental bridge width?
One of Price’s key points in his researches was that people living in traditional societies on traditional diets had wide bridges and all of their wisdom teeth had room to come in normally. It would be interesting, and certainly provide compelling evidence, if modern day followers of Price were experiencing improved dental bridge width and complete integration of wisdom teeth among their children.
If people are not experiencing that improvement among their children, it will also be interesting to know why not? Is there a kind of Pottenger’s Cat problem among those of us who come from families that followed bad diets for many generations, whereby it cannot even be fixed in one generation?
—
As for my own experience, an impacted wisdom tooth was causing chronic inflammation from a periodontal pocket that I couldn’t clean. The surgeon actually removed just the portion of that one wisdom tooth that was causing the problem (not the whole tooth), thereby not disturbing the root and avoiding the danger of damaging the nerve that the wisdom tooth was almost pushing up against.
It was a very thoughtful and tailored approach that also solved the problem. Neither my dentist nor the surgeon suggested doing anything else with my other three wisdom teeth. So, my own experience gave me a lot of respect for the professionalism and judgment of the dentists I dealt with, and I would tend to think their are many others out there like them.
Daniel,
Yes, there are families being impacted in this way, with the children benefiting from the parents’ awakening to the importance of real foods. I will never forget an article from one of the Wise Traditions journals a few years back describing one family’s transition to traditional food and how they budget their food dollars. The older children raised on a typical SAD diet had crooked teeth, and the younger trad food kids did not. There was a picture in the original article and you could see their broad, beaming smiles!
Here’s a quote regarding facial structure from that article::
“As a follower of Dr. Price, I have been interested to see the difference in the development of facial structures between my two older children who were raised on typical American diets for their first eight years and my two younger children, especially my youngest who was nourished primarily with a nutrient-dense diet. Both the older children have had orthodontic care and showed the typical crowding of teeth. Neither of the younger children may need it. If we do not have to provide orthodontic care for the younger children, we will be saving enough money to buy grass-fed meat for many years!”
I highly recommend the rest of the article for anyone trying to navigate a transition to real food while maintaining a budget. It’s called Healthy Eating Shouldn’t Cost an Arm and a Leg, by Anne M. A. Sergeant, PhD
http://www.westonaprice.org/making-it-practical/healthy-eating
Thanks! That’s great.
It is my understanding that even if you follow the WAPF diet, you won’t fix tooth misalignment that has already occurred.
The only way the diet could prevent such problems would be if you were following it prior to the conception of your children.
It seems that following the recommendations of Weston Price can save teeth with cavities, but it can’t change your basic dental structure once it’s already in place.