A review team in the Netherlands finds no evidence justifying the extraction of healthy wisdom teeth.
Dr. Dirk Mettes of Radboud University Medical Center and his colleagues studied the literature and found no surveys of adults on wisdom teeth removal. They found two studies of teenagers involving 200 subjects and said neither showed any great benefit from the removal of wisdom teeth.
Mettes' findings were published in The Cochran Library, produced by the Cochran Collaboration, an organization evaluating medical research.
While Mettes said the usual justification for extracting wisdom teeth is that they can crowd other teeth, Dr. Richard Haug of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, said the teeth should be removed because they can cause decay and gum disease. He said that early removal is also justified because it is easier than taking the teeth out later in life.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
