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To: Ichneumon

This is very interesting about the wisdom teeth...I had 2 wisdom teeth, and had to have them both pulled, because my mouth was too small to accomodate them...my girlfriend had 4 wisdom teeth, and had to have all 4 of them pulled for the same reason...

X-Rays show that my husband never had any wisdom teeth to begin with...neither one of our boys ever had any wisdom teeth either...thankfully, my boys genetics were such, that they never had any wisdom teeth, just like their dad...

So to me, that shows, that slowly, the incidence of wisdom teeth in humans is declining...some people have all four wisdom teeth, ,some have fewer than 4 wisdom teeth, and many have no wisdom teeth at all...

Some people have 4 wisdom teeth, some have less than 4, and some have none at all...is that evolution at work?...since wisdom teeth are not necessary for human beings, and more often than not, they are just a pain, become impacted and have to be removed by a dentist, doesnt understanding evolution explain the decline in people having wisdom teeth?...we dont need them, so eventually the human race will no longer have them...

Please remember, my understanding of evolution, is at best, minimal...


147 posted on 11/20/2005 3:46:24 PM PST by andysandmikesmom
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To: andysandmikesmom
"Some people have 4 wisdom teeth, some have less than 4, and some have none at all...is that evolution at work?...since wisdom teeth are not necessary for human beings, and more often than not, they are just a pain, become impacted and have to be removed by a dentist, doesnt understanding evolution explain the decline in people having wisdom teeth?...we dont need them, so eventually the human race will no longer have them..."

Just because wisdom teeth are unneccesary does not mean they disappear from the gene pool. There has to be some factor that makes people without wisdom teeth more likely to reproduce. Possibly it is infection rates from impacted wisdom teeth. 1000 years ago if 25% of people who had infected wisdom teeth died of infection, that would impact the gene pool. Today it is not as likely, but it is still more likely that someone with infected wisdom would die than someone without wisdom teeth. Therefor it still impacts the gene pool, only slightly.

169 posted on 11/20/2005 4:18:56 PM PST by Oblongata
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