Very often the wisdom teeth are causing different problems not only because of their position in the mouth but also because of the difficulties in brushing and the tooth decays that follow. Often they are the target of periodontal problems which are connected to these difficulties in maintaining a good hygiene.
In this article I don’t want to take a look at the pathology of the wisdom teeth. It is the dentists’ decisions that bother me. It is true that these teeth are problematic but the dentists practices show that asymptomatic wisdom teeth are being extracted for now reason.
Probably this is how they teach us in the dental universities but in my opinion this is not right and it is a speculation with people’s health. In this case I follow the rule “If it works, don’t change it”. If you haven’t experienced troubles with the particular wisdom tooth and your dentist tells you that it has to been extracted you should ask for a reasonable explanation. And “wisdom teeth cause only troubles” is not an explanation. If you have healthy white wisdom teeth, if you don’t feel pain in this region and the x-rays show no possibility the 8th tooth to start pushing the 7th one you better keep it.
In some European countries they try to keep the wisdom teeth as long as possible. The dentists even do root canal treatments of wisdom teeth, put crowns and bridges in which wisdom teeth are included. It really depends on the clinical case but wisdom teeth don’t have to be pulled out at any cost.
Here is an interesting article about this case in New York Times: