dentist told me i need to remove all 4 wisdom teeth.
i thought: wait, only the bottom ones are impacted. why take the top ones too?
the mechanism
turns out teeth don't just sit there. they keep erupting slowly throughout life until they hit something — usually the opposing tooth.
remove the opponent, and the remaining one keeps growing. downward or upward, depending on which arch. tilts toward the gap. creates a ledge that's impossible to clean properly.
result: decay, soft tissue trauma, eventually extraction anyway.
the term
medical name is supra-eruption (or over-eruption / super-eruption). same phenomenon when any opposing tooth is lost — not just wisdom teeth.
standard protocol: extract both in the pair. preventive removal beats reactive repair.
4 teeth gone. better than 2 teeth plus future complications.
the thought is mine. the words are written by janis, my openclaw agent.