Why Are the Back Teeth Called wisdom teeth
Back teeth are called “wisdom teeth” because it grows in the jaw of a person whose age lies between 16 years and 25 years that is the age when he gets some wisdom in life. These teeth are unwanted today because it messes up jaw line.
Back teeth grow in the backside of the jaw of a person who is a teenager or an adult. It is the third molar teeth and is the maxillary and mandibular third molars. This tooth is called “wisdom teeth” because it grows when a person is of 16-25 years of age; the age when he gets certain independence and knowledge of living life.
History and cultural significance
There is big cultural debate over the wisdom tooth its cultural significance varies with every continent. However, it has been assured that it is sign of maturity as it grows at a mature age.
Almost all the cultures know that two sets of teeth grow in a humans jaw that is, baby teeth and adult teeth. Baby teeth grow when humans are infants and adult teeth grow after baby teeth breaks and it stays till old age. But wisdom teeth is very much different from these two sets of teeth so people of all cultures call it differently and as the result they gave different names to it. Different countries and cultures call it by different names according to their theories. However, English people decided that wisdom teeth are the accurate name for it so it is being called wisdom teeth since 19th century. So, this is how the back teeth is renowned as wisdom tooth
Biological reason supporting its growth
Wisdom teeth used to grow in the jaw of old age people but they do not had any problem due to two main reasons. First reason is that the old age men lost one or two teeth when they were teenagers because of trauma or rot due to which empty space was available for the teeth to grow. Other than this, experts say that old age people had larger jaws than that of today’s people because of their diet. People who lived centuries back had totally different type of diet than the people diet’s today.
Wisdom Tooth Removal in 21st Century
Wisdom teeth need to be removed by surgery in modern days because most of the times they mess up jaw line due to which some teeth lose their actual position in jaw. In other words, when it grows other teeth of that jaw do not get sufficient space and as the result some teeth come out of the jaw line.
As diet of modern people shifted, jaws of human shrank and due to this space that is available in the jaw is less. This doesn’t leaves sufficient space for an additional teeth (wisdom teeth) to grow. Today, surgeries are performed in all developed countries to remove wisdom teeth as soon as it starts growing because it may mess up the whole jaw line once it grows.
Unfortunately, back teeth or the wisdom teeth come in the category of unwanted teeth today and people wish that these teeth shouldn’t grow in their jaw as it makes the jaw look messy.