# I have three wisdom teeth

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-three-wisdom-teeth/510793>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 20, 2009, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-three-wisdom-teeth/510793 "2009-09-20T03:11:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-three-wisdom-teeth/510793/41 "2009-09-23T00:06:14Z")

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My dentist says that a small but increasing percentage of the population (10%?) has no wisdom teeth.

Me, I have the normal 4, but I got lucky- I’ve got room in my mouth for them. (Although they hurt like all holy heck coming in).

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-three-wisdom-teeth/510793/42 "2009-09-23T18:15:16Z")

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> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> Why don’t I have four?

I only had three, too.

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**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-three-wisdom-teeth/510793/43 "2009-09-23T20:19:32Z")

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I also have three (one emerged), with no pressing need to have any removed.

Wisdom teeth do have two evolutionary purposes, sort of: to help economically support dentists, orthodontists, and oral surgeons (by any reasonable definition, a fairly smart subset of the population); and as another bullet point in the argument against the “Intelligent Design” version of Creationism.

😃 [the 3-wisdom-tooth version]

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