Missing Molars

[thomashobbs]

This is a weird question and I don't mean to offend but as a dental & orthodontics obsessed Californian I can't help but notice the number of 20 and 30-somethings missing molars.

Is this just bad dental hygiene or is there some sort of culturally specific dental practice to remove rear molars to make, say, orthodontics easier? I really know nothing about dentistry so I could be totally off the mark.

Has anyone else noticed this?

 

[John.St]

...the number of 20 and 30-somethings missing molars

Watch young men opening beer bottles with their teeths to look muy macho - I've seen it time and again, and my governor did the same when he was young and stupid, made him loose 3 molars before he came to his senses.

There may of course be other reasons I don't know of.

 

[RWS]

. . . . There may of course be other reasons I don't know of.

Precautionary removal of all four wisdom teeth is common. As for why it's advocated, you'd have to ask a dentist -- I don't know.

 

[nativexpat]

Maybe it comes from lack of preventive care...Most people go to the dentist only when they cannot stand the pain any longer.

I had never had regular cleaning appointments until I moved to the US. And I see a lot of people my age needing braces...

It´s a matter of standards, I guess.

 

[John.St]

Precautionary removal of all four wisdom teeth is common. As for why it's advocated, you'd have to ask a dentist -- I don't know.

I know why in my own and several other cases: Lack of space in my mouth, which would have forced my other molars into an S- or U-curve.

The result is as intended, although of course, nobody knows what would have happened had I kept my wisdom teeth

It is my impression that what thomashobbs have in mind is the 1 or 2 missing molars in each jaw - something many of us must have noticed in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile,

 

[ghost]

It ups the take from the tooth fairy.