The Whole Tooth about Wisdom Teeth

Were you ever told that your wisdom teeth had to come out because they were crowding your other teeth — and this was because the modern human jaw was slowly evolving? In a section of a popular high school biology text (2002) entitled, "Critical Thinking," the two authors discuss removal of people's wisdom teeth supposedly due to "evolution of the human jaw." But this has nothing to do with macroevolution and everything to do with diet. Processed and refined foods in modern societies have resulted in our reduced use of wisdom teeth. When refined foods are constantly eaten, there is no stimulus for robust jaw development and erupting wisdom teeth become crowded. Failure of the wisdom teeth to erupt in normal position results in many cases of a developmental cyst around the crown of the tooth and problems result. Does this sound like macroevolution? Furthermore, there are virtually no "primitive" cultures with impacted teeth because their hearty diet uses wisdom teeth to grind and crush raw and unprocessed foods. One might say "use it or loose it" applies here! Does the biology text you have (or your children or grandchildren) use the unscientific explanation of wisdom teeth removal because of "the evolution of the human jaw"?

Speaking of the alleged evolution of teeth — the fossil record documents excellent, well-designed tooth patterns found in whatever animals are unearthed — be they apes or dinosaurs. This is not according to Darwinism. If evolution were true, fossil experts should find billions of fossilized creatures with badly formed jaws and teeth — testimony to evolution's blind tinkering. Museum display cases should be full of skulls clearly showing evolution's botched dental experiments such as jaws with atypical eruption patterns and other defects — until the assumed processes of natural selection and mutations finally "got it right."

But, just as the creation model predicts, there is a clear absence of these tried-but-failed dental evolution experiments. Each time wisdom teeth — or any other type of teeth — are found in the fossil record, they're beautifully formed and ready for use. Such dental design is seen when we loose our "baby" teeth at approximately seven years old to full-grown adult teeth. The fossil record shows teeth have always been teeth.

Cite this article: Frank Sherwin, M.A. 2003. The Whole Tooth about Wisdom Teeth. Acts & Facts. 32 (3).