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Starting from my mid teens, I've had around a half dozen dentists tell me that I should get my wisdom teeth removed without me reporting any problems or having

Starting from my mid teens, I've had around a half dozen dentists tell me that I should get my wisdom teeth removed without me reporting any problems or having any negative side effects from them. I've declined to have them removed every time and I'm still sporting four healthy wisdom teeth into my 40's which now is decades of dentists negligently telling me to get them pulled for their own profit. My family practice doctor has never recommended that I get a pinky finger removed, I don't understand why dentists recommend removing perfectly functional and healthy body parts unsolicited. At this point I just use it as a metric of the dentist's trustworthiness.

esperent 2y ago
I'm in the same position, although luckily it was only two dentists who recommended that before I found a third who said "wait and see". I stayed with her through my twenties until I moved away, and now at 40 I still have all four wisdom teeth and never had any issues with them. However, to be fair to the previous dentists, I was doing this through the Irish free dental program and they wouldn't have made that much money. I think there's very high chance of wisdom teeth going wrong and many of them default to removing them to be safe. That may something wrong with modern dentistry - perhaps dentists in twenty years will look at it as an archaic practice - but that doesn't necessarily make it a scam.
- missjuliekay 2y ago
  Thank you for mentioning the Irish system and being fair. I was going through the US Army system (also not a monetized system) when I got swept into some sort of new training pipeline, where the newest (and youngest) Army recruits, me included, were being treated (by the newest dentists.) One after another, each of the Soldiers began coming "home" to our barracks from the dentist with chipmunk faces (swelling from wisdom tooth surgery) so when it was my turn, I declined the surgery. I was shown xrays of my wisdom teeth not erupted, and they fairly explained that they could erupt crooked. I took my chances, kept them, and still have them 20 years later. They went on to the next, and it was no harm, no foul. Some people might come from backgrounds where they don't care for their teeth, so the free procedure now was in their best interest, and some dentists just want to get training and do more procedures.
missjuliekay 2y ago
You are so right about that! If everyone is getting them pulled, we no longer have data on what percent of people can't clean them well at home and they end up rotten in later life. I agree it sucks to have to jam my toothbrush into the back of my cheek to clean my wisdom teeth, but I am glad to do it.

esperent 2y ago

I'm in the same position, although luckily it was only two dentists who recommended that before I found a third who said "wait and see". I stayed with her through my twenties until I moved away, and now at 40 I still have all four wisdom teeth and never had any issues with them. However, to be fair to the previous dentists, I was doing this through the Irish free dental program and they wouldn't have made that much money. I think there's very high chance of wisdom teeth going wrong and many of them default to removing them to be safe. That may something wrong with modern dentistry - perhaps dentists in twenty years will look at it as an archaic practice - but that doesn't necessarily make it a scam.

missjuliekay 2y ago
Thank you for mentioning the Irish system and being fair. I was going through the US Army system (also not a monetized system) when I got swept into some sort of new training pipeline, where the newest (and youngest) Army recruits, me included, were being treated (by the newest dentists.) One after another, each of the Soldiers began coming "home" to our barracks from the dentist with chipmunk faces (swelling from wisdom tooth surgery) so when it was my turn, I declined the surgery. I was shown xrays of my wisdom teeth not erupted, and they fairly explained that they could erupt crooked. I took my chances, kept them, and still have them 20 years later. They went on to the next, and it was no harm, no foul. Some people might come from backgrounds where they don't care for their teeth, so the free procedure now was in their best interest, and some dentists just want to get training and do more procedures.

missjuliekay 2y ago

You are so right about that! If everyone is getting them pulled, we no longer have data on what percent of people can't clean them well at home and they end up rotten in later life. I agree it sucks to have to jam my toothbrush into the back of my cheek to clean my wisdom teeth, but I am glad to do it.