They serve a powerful purpose for the dentist, who are paid to extract them. Otherwise, wisdom teeth are commonly regarded as being useless to modern man. But because nature rarely provides us with useless body parts, a little investigations yields a more satisfying answer. Primitive man ate meats so tough that they make beef jerky feel like mash potatoes in comparison. The extra molars in the back of the mouth, now knows as wisdom teeth, undoubtedly aided in our ancestors’ mastication. As humans have evolved, their brains have gotten progressively larger and face position has moved farther downward and inward. About the time that primitive man started walking in a an upright position, other changes in facial structure occurred. The protruding jawbones of early man gradually moved backward, making the jaw itself shorter and leaving no room for wisdom teeth (also known as third molars). Most people’s jaws no longer have the capacity to accommodate these four, now superfluous, teeth. |
