Troubling new research about wisdom teeth

[tofino]

Hi.

I just read this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... t/asection

Thank goodness I had mine chopped out in 1991.

Hope this is useful to somebody.

Cheers

Glen

P.S. I must be addicted to the forum; I'm posting far too much! Back to work...

[mtbrncofn]

Yikes. Not what I want to hear. Mine are in, ( all of them ) in the right positions, nothing wrong with them, so I am keeping them.

I do not like that kind of research.

[Guppie51]

I have lots of "room" in my mouth (which Is why today I got braces) but im keeping all four wisdom teeth, I actually did develop a cavity one one of them, but made it a point now to be sure to brush way back there really well especially on the bottom.

My dentist actually asked me if I wanted them extracted before I got my braces on, and I asked, "why?"

Anyway, just take good care of your mouth and you will decrease the risk of gum disease.

[*hotslinthesun*]

I think the most important paragraph of the entire article is the last one:

"It is an association. It doesn't demonstrate cause and effect, by any means," said Pihlstrom"

The type of study performed is a correlational study, meaning they simply observed a positive relationship between two factors. It's not considered to be a "true" scientific experiment because there is no control group, the participants were not randomly assigned, etc. Meaning that there could be some third factor that accounts for the findings in the study. Although there very well might be some truth to the study I wouldn't run out and yank my teeth just because of this study.

[Matilda]

Interesting.

[fosterp]

Studies were performed by "American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons."

That is basically like saying "a series of studies performed by the association of Montsanto and other food monopolies show that humans who don't consume genetically modified foods are associated with a higher risk of becoming obese."

Take it with a grain of salt.

[plugnickel69]

Rather than deciding to get your perfectly healthy wisdom teeth yanked after reading this article, it would make much more sense to brush better and make sure your gums are healthy.

[katsface]

Correlation ≠ causation

Maybe people who have great oral hygiene also tend to go to the dentist more often, and because they go to the dentist more often the dentist has had more opportunities to encourage them to have their wisdom teeth removed. If that's the case, the likely cause for better gum health is better oral hygiene, and not having wisdom teeth is in no way a cause.

Maybe people who elected not to have their wisdom teeth pulled tend to be in a lower income bracket, and have less disposable income for dental care including having their wisdom teeth removed, or perhaps they couldn't afford the time off of work. They say the increased risk couldn't be explained by lack of health insurance, but they don't mention dental insurance. My health insurance doesn't cover dental check-ups.

Just two of many possibilities that could explain this correlation. I won't dismiss this completely, but I also wouldn't have any teeth removed based on this article.