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Old 12-26-2012, 03:45 PM
 
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Any personal experiences with a non functional wisdom tooth?

I've got one that is non-functional. That term non-functional was used by a dentist who gave their opinion.
It means the tooth does not serve any purpose.
In my case, when biting or eating the wisdom tooth does not come into contact with any other tooth.

Based on your experiences, what are the possible complications, if any at all, of leaving this tooth where it is, versus having it taken out. It may not come in contact with any lower teeth but it does assist, somewhat, in eating. So it has some limited functionality.
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Old 12-26-2012, 04:36 PM
 
Location: In a house
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Wisdom teeth are ancestral vestiges - sort of like an appendix, or a "vestigial tail" (an extra bit of cartilege at the base of your coccyx - aka tailbone). If yours is grinding against the tooth on the other jaw, then your teeth are malaligned. Wisdom teeth serve no function in the modern human mouth. They're "extra" teeth, and many people never grow them at all. Many people who -do- grow them, don't grow all 4. And many who do grow all 4, end up having to have at least 1, if not all 4, pulled, because they are pushing the -rest- of the teeth (which are necessary), forward in the mouth, crowding them and causing malalignment.

You don't need your wisdom tooth. However, if there's nothing wrong with it, and it's not crowding any other teeth, then you don't need to have it pulled. It can stay there indefinitely, until it starts pushing your other teeth forward, or until it starts to decay. At that point, it's cheaper to just pull it, and since it's an unneccessary tooth in the first place, there's no reason why you'd -want- to save it with a root canal or crown.

Wisdom teeth should be either a) left alone if they're not troublesome, or b) extracted.
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