Those wisdom teeth. They’re never satisfied to just fit in. Why do wisdom teeth need to be removed so commonly? There are a couple ideas. Some say human evolution—as the mandible became more compact, wisdom teeth have become more or less vestigial. But findings show that ancient modern humans (if I can call them that) didn’t have this problem. Americans of previous generations didn’t either. Come to think of it, among non-western societies, most people still have plenty of room for their wisdom teeth. Which leads to the conclusion that either Anglos are evolving faster than everyone else (highly unlikely) or the problem, rather, is one of diet.

Two things are probably at play here. One is fairly obvious: refined foods don’t require as much chewing. Courser, earthier foods (think raw carrots instead of KFC mashed potatoes), stimulate jaw development in terms of strength and size, eliminating the crowding of wisdom teeth. When our jaws go relatively unexercised they don’t grow as robustly. Wisdom teeth are then too crowded to erupt properly, and instead form cysts around their crowns, causing problems. Crushing uncooked, unprocessed foods regularly eliminated the problem of impacted wisdom teeth for our forebears.

Also, humans seem to be maturing faster, possibly due to growth hormones in many foods, and wisdom teeth are erupting before the jaw has had sufficient time to grow. Strange, but true.

Is there a solution? We can start with more fresh raw vegetables, nuts, and berries. But one dental journal article suggested giving your kids gum so that the jaw would grow and teeth would come in straight.