<p>Well, I only ever had one and got it removed at age of 45. I got the dreaded dry socket thing and it hurt like hell for 2 weeks.</p>
<p>Here is the study regarding wisdom teeth and crowding (I found it via Wikipedia):
[Interventions</a> for treating asymptomatic impacted wisdom teeth in adolescents and adults](<a href=“http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab003879.html]Interventions”>http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab003879.html)</p>
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<p>I think that’s a hook for colleges – it shows how smart you all are! It’s like scoring over 2400 on the SAT!</p>
<p>My dentist doesn’t believe in having them out unless they’re going to cause a problem, but if he has the slightest doubt he says to get them out, especially in students so that the operation can be planned during a break and not become an urgent issue mid-semester. He would also consider repeated cavities a problem, not just crowding. He says it’s harder for a lot of people to fit a toothbrush that far back to keep the teeth adequately cleaned.</p>
<p>I’ve had my top two out already because they were erupted and it was an easy, easy, easy non-surgical procedure to remove them that was completely painless even as it was healing-- one was slightly impacted and I got an abscess, the other was hyper erupting. That abscess hurt like hell and came on out of nowhere. Up to that point he thought those two teeth would be fine to stay in and that was why I hadn’t had them removed already-- had that not happened during the summer and had those teeth needed surgery, I would have had to miss school with no control over when. I’d have had a meltdown if it was during exams.</p>
<p>My bottom two teeth are still in, haven’t erupted, and the jury is still out over whether or not they’ll need to come out. The dentist says not to worry about it unless they start bugging me-- though if my first procedure had been surgical he would have suggested to consider having them all out at once regardless.</p>
<p>My older sister never got hers out, now as an adult needs it and doesn’t have dental insurance and can’t afford it out of pocket, and she is in complete agony. Like laying on the floor screaming agony. I wish she’d had them done while she still had our parents insurance.</p>