wisdom teeth removal

Verna was just 20, newly married with a baby, when her dentist told her that she needed to have her wisdom teeth removed because they were 'impacted'. Ten years and three babies later, she's lost her back molars and wants her wisdom teeth back!

"I wasn't experiencing any trouble with my teeth when my dentist told me to get my wisdom teeth removed," says Verna. "I just turned up for my regular six-monthly check up and the guy showed me an X-ray of my mouth showing four newly emerging wisdom teeth."

"He said they were 'impacted' - had nowhere to go - and suggested that if I wanted to avoid trouble down the line I should have them removed right away."

"Thinking back," muses Verna, "all four of my back molars had fillings in them - and if any teeth needed to be removed it should have been them - not my brand new wisdom teeth!"

"When you think about it," says Verna, "Nature didn't give us wisdom teeth around the age of 20 for nothing. Those new teeth were designed to push the old molars out and take us through to our old age. So why did my dentist tell me to get them removed?"

"Anyway, I was too dumb at that age to know better so I did what my dentist suggested and lived to regret the day I did."

"I had the choice to get the wisdom teeth removed in his surgery or to have them all taken out at a private hospital," says Verna.

"Not being good with pain I thought it would be a good idea to get it done in a hospital under anesthetic."

"When I woke up from the operation I was an absolute mess," says Verna. "My mouth had been hacked to pieces and the pain was excruciating."

"If you think having a baby is painful then you need to experience the exquisite agony of having your wisdom teeth hacked out of the bone at the back of your mouth!"

"In that terrible state I was sent home with some pathetic pain killer that didn't help the pain at all," says Verna, "and imagine how I coped trying to look after a baby in the mess I was in."

"After three days the pain had not eased and I begged my doctor for an injection to make my life worth living. He told me that he didn't think it was a good idea - I might get addicted to whatever he gave me - and so I had to suffer in silence for another week or so before the pain eased."

"I never thought about that operation for ten years," says Verna, "and then when I recently lost the last of my back molars it all came back to me."

"At 30 I need those big brand new and healthy wisdom teeth that my dentist took away from me at 20."

"Removing impacted wisdom teeth is a fashion - like circumcision - and someone needs to kick up a fuss about it," cries Verna.

"My parents never had their wisdom teeth removed - and neither did my husband's parents. It just wasn't done in their day. So why is it done now?"

"If it's just one more way for dentists to line their pockets then they should all be shot!"