Samhain Waxing Thanksgiving Moon
Wisdom teeth. Well, I still have a couple. A while back I had the first two yanked out, but the ensuing weekend and week made me hold off on the other two. Until now. Faced with the imminent loss of dental insurance, or at least a changed plan, I asked my dentist what he thought I could do now to help my dental health long term. The wisdom teeth, he said, out.
So, this morning out they come. I woke up early this morning, a bit nervous I guess. My goal, in general, is to stay away from the medical profession (except for my lovely wife), but once in a while it’s unavoidable. Like today.
Wondering about wisdom teeth, I took a quick poke around the web and found a dentistry site that identified wisdom teeth as vestigial. Interesting. Seems at one point our diet consisted of much more abrasive material which needed the third molar to help grind it down. Back then we didn’t need extra fiber in the diet, I’m guessing. Now jaws stay fuller*, our diet’s smoother and we don’t create space by losing permanent teeth, thanks to modern dentistry.
Around 9:15 the procedure begins. Oh, boy.
*Until quite recently, our diet included mostly very coarse food, as well as impurities such as dirt and sand. This coarseness would abrade teeth so significantly that they would take up less space in the jaw.
