The Wisdom Answer

So I'm sitting in the dentist's chair getting ready to meet the guy who will be using instruments of pain in my mouth and I begin thinking of the worst scenarios. I think he won't be able to pull out the wisdom tooth, and in turn it'll require more injections inside my mouth.

As I meet the doctor I notice that he is a chubby fella in really good spirits. He proceeds to talk to me about how the longest part of this procedure is filling out the paper work and we strike up a conversation about technology. Being that I'm a tech geek I mention to him how it would be great if there was such a thing as a wireless tablet with a touch screen where all the info entered on there automatically goes to a database rather than writing it out on paper then entering all the info on a computer terminal.

The doctor proceeds to tell me that, that technology is already in place but in big hospitals. He tells me that perhaps in another 10 years we might start seeing all that in regular offices like the one I was in. While we're having this convo the doc proceeds to start the numbing procedure and we continue talking.

I ask the doctor "Why do they call it Wisdom Teeth?" The doctor then explains that wisdom teeth start to come out between the ages of 18 and 25 when we are supposedly "wiser" or when we supposedly acquire wisdom. I don't know if that's the absolute correct theory or explanation on why they're called Wisdom teeth but I like it and I'm sticking to it.

My next question to the doctor is "If we really don't have a need for these teeth why does our body produce them in the first place?" The doctor's answer: Evolution. Yes folks evolution is partly responsible for those extra set of teeth we have. The explanation is as follows.

Back in our primitive days we had a different diet where our body required the extra set of teeth to break down the kind of meat we ate along with the kind of greens we had as well. You have to remember that for a long long time we didn't have fast food, or for that fact cooked food. As we have evolved into what we are now, we no longer have a need for those extra set of teeth because our mandibles are receding thus it explains why most people have all set of wisdom teeth removed.

By now my mouth is numb and the doctor explains that I will feel a little bit of pushing here and there. He asks me if I want to put on my iPod and listen to music while he's doing this so I take out my iPod and start listening to music. By the time a third of the song goes by he turns around and starts packing up. He then says to me "you're all done". To my amazement the procedure took less than a minute and my worry had been for nothing.

Of course I couldn't really eat the first day but that was no biggie for me. So as I left I wondered who in the world came up with the idea of calling it Wisdom teeth in the first place. I ask this because you encounter things in your life that somtimes question what Wisdom really is.



So, you still think we acquire wisdom between the ages of 18 and 25?