During childhood, when we are babies, it is when the milk teeth emerge to later give way to the definitive teeth, but we will still have to wait until we are adults for the wisdom teeth to come out, which in many cases also, due to lack of space mainly, they usually hurt a lot, but why do wisdom teeth grow out when we are adults? One study seems to have looked at it and found an answer.
Why do wisdom teeth come out when we are adults?
Wisdom teeth , unlike other teeth, begin to emerge when the human being has almost passed adolescence (and many times not always). Experts don’t seem to have fully understood the reason behind this “mystery,” but a new study seems to offer an answer.
By examining the skull bones of 21 species of primates in 3D models, anthropologist and lead author of the study, Halszka Glowacka , along with the help of Gary Schwartz, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Arizona Institute of Human Origins, got an answer. on the reason for the “late” appearance of wisdom teeth . He realized that the growth times of our molars has a lot to do with the balance of the biomechanics of our skull.
Because our faces are short and our jaws grow slowly , the teeth adjust to this growth rate , until there is a “mechanically safe” space to emerge. Precisely for this reason, wisdom teeth begin to grow when we are adults, at least compared to other species of primates.
The chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) obtains its molars at 3, 6 and 12 years, respectively. Another species of primate, the yellow baboon (Papio cynocephalus) obtains its last set of adult molars at age 7, while the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) obtains all of its molars at age 6. Wisdom teeth, in human beings, appear when childhood and adolescence have already been passed, with an average age between 18 and 30 years.
And the reason, according to this new study, appears to be “simple”: We have to wait until our skulls have developed to the point where the forces exerted on each set of molars do not damage our growing jaw.
The result of the elaborate study not only gives us a new way to assess dental conditions, such as impacted molars, but could also help paleontologists better understand the evolution of our unique jaws among our hominid ancestors.
