Re: Wisdom Teeth in Fossil Record

[Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette <dinosaur@dinosaur.org>]

This is all kind of off topic, but since it's already appeared....

Consumer's Union  (a not-for-profit consumer information organization that
publishes Consumer Reports) did a lengthy study on wisdom teeth which concludes,
basically, that we should leave them alone and not keep yanking them out before
there are problems with them.  The "yanking" part was basically invented by
dentists who needed a way to make more money.

If you're REALLY interested beyond that, you can search their website for the
full report which was published about 2 years ago.

We can all conclude with some certainty that dinosaurs did not have dentists. 
The
proof of this is the lack of dental tools in the fossil record. Unless they were
made of wood or some other easily perishable material, the dental tools would
have survived far more readily than tooth and bone structure. Also (and correct
me if I'm wrong) no T. rex teeth with amalgam fillings have ever been found.

ES

dbensen wrote:

> >>
> Wisdom teeth are specifically a Homo sapiens thing - basically, our snouts
> are too short for our third molars, but we haven't gotten around to losing
> them yet.  Except for a few lucky individuals such as yourself and those of
> us who've had them taken out the hard way, of course.  And in a few people,
> they erupt normally and function as normal molars.<<
>   I haven't grown my wisdom teeth yet, so I don't know---do they just hurt or
> do they actively impare chewing?
> How did people deal with wisdom teeth before we started pulling them out?
>
> Dan

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