Does Your Body Think You Are Wise?

Yesterday, we talked about teeth in general. Today, we focus on a particular type of teeth that supposedly come to only wise people .

Why Do We Have Wisdom Teeth?

Wisdom teeth are the last set of molars that erupt when people are generally 17-21 years old. Some people get it sooner and some later.

As we saw yesterday, teeth are categorized by their function and placement. Sharper teeth helps in tearing food like meat and flatter teeth helps in grinding food. Wisdom teeth, as mentioned earlier are a kind of molar (which are flatter teeth).

It is speculated that our ancestors usually had to eat harder stuff (they didn’t cook stuff or grow stuff till later). Thus, the extra set of molars helped in grinding the food. Many archaeologists also think that the wisdom tooth served as a replacement in case one of the molars got broken while eating.

Since most people get the teeth at the age of around 20, they are thought to be wiser by this time and thus, the teeth are called wisdom teeth. Although I have enough reason to doubt this, it seems to be the consensus among people.

There are a lot of people including some of my friends (and even me) who don’t have all the wisdom teeth. Many a times, the teeth gets stuck inside the gums and never erupt. Thus, people generally have 0, 1, 2, 3, or, 4 wisdom teeth.

The wisdom teeth are a vestige of our struggles for food. A bittersweet memory of our ancestors that still inhabits our genes. Although it pains a lot when they come out, they do still help us remember the things that our ancestors had to face.