ABOUT THE WISDOM TEETH, THE APPENDIX AND THE TALE BONE


JUNE 5:

An editor has many advantages. He can write about very different topics every day, if he wants to. This is what I will do also today.

Yesterday my lovely daughter, Cecilie, in Australia had a very tough and painful day. How? She was sitting in the dentist’s chair for two full hours. And why? Because she had to have two wisdom teeth removed. This was a very hard time for her as well as for the dentist ☹

This inspired me to find out what a WISDOM TOOTH actually is? And why it is called so?

I could tell Cecilie that I have NO wisdom teeth.  And she replied:  Oh, I see. This explains a lot !

A wisdom tooth is in Latin called dens serotinus. But that does not make it less difficult and at times painful. It is the name of the teeth at the very back in as well the upper part of the mouth as the lower part. So, if you are fully equipped you have 4 wisdom teeth. They will normally appear only when you are between 17 and 21 years old. This means that they arrive, when you have acquired (some) wisdom, some knowledge.  This is why they are called what they are.  In French they are called the same: DENT DE SAGESSE.  Also in German: WEISHEITSZAHN.  And in Danish: VISDOMSTAND.  So, we all have the “pleasure” of having them. Except me. Actually, only 2 % of the population does not have them.  It is good to belong to the few – just now and then!

The fact is that the wisdom teeth should not be there anymore. They are a relic from a much earlier stage in the evolution of man. We needed them when we were still living from eating very coarse plant food. We needed a very solid bite to eat it. When we much later were eating in a much more “civilized” manner with prepared food the wisdom teeth became unemployed. And it has as a matter of fact made them genetically unstable. They often have a strange position on the jawbone.  And you often risk getting inflammation in them.   Until a few years ago the dentist would often remove them, if he was pulling out other teeth. He does not do that any longer. He only does it, when they start making trouble for the owner.  In the same way the doctors no longer remove another relic from old days, the APPENDIX, when they do another operation in that area of the body. They are not sure, if it still has a positive function one way or another. Perhaps the situation is the same with the wisdom teeth.

Talking about relics from earlier stages of human life I also want to mention the COCCYX, the “tale bone”. It is the far “southern” end of the spine.  This is the only bone left from the tale we all had earlier on.  Normally, we do not think about it or notice it.  But an old friend many years ago were falling on his “rear end” on his terrace. He broke his “tale bone”. It was very painful, and he had for months to sit on a big rubber pillow. He did not find it very funny, especially not when we were all making funny remarks and laughing of his situation.

So, our ancient history as humans now and then comes back and makes our life difficult and even painful. Not much to do about it.


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