Wisdom Tooth

I have been wondering, why in the world do they call those four back molars which grows when you are about 15-25 years old, causing you much pain and grievance, with no particular use, not grow straight and eventually disrupts your teeth arrangements… Wisdom tooth.

I remembered telling my mom that I was feeling much discomfort with my jaw and when she peeked into my mouth, she said that it’s just my wisdom tooth growing and it just shows that I am going to be wiser.

That tooth did not “mature” at one go. It took more about a decade to fully develop, out of tangent and filled with cavities as I did not realise that I missed to brush it every night. The moment it was fully grown, I realized that I couldn’t eat sweet stuff anymore as I had electric shots whenever chocolate melts around that area.

I went to my dentist not once, but THREE TIMES, only to be told that he could not find any holes or cavity in my teeth. Then I went to my cousin, who is a “pakar bedah mulut” and she spotted that my wisdom tooth was as the problem and I had to take it out. She was right.

Back to the naming game… why is it called a wisdom tooth. I read about it somewhere in the net and it said that since wisdom tooth only grew when you are more matured, hence it is assumed that you are wiser when you get it. It’s like a sign telling you that you are now ready to be a wiser person.

I realize, after discussing it with mum and the Bride, it is called wisdom tooth because of the pain and discomfort it causes us when it is growing.

Such pain and discomfort will extend for about 7-10 years when the tooth is coming out and there is nothing much that we could do but bear such pain as part and parcel of growing up / older. Bearing this pain and discomfort, requires much patience. This is where wisdom comes in.

The wisdom behind having a wisdom tooth, to my mind, is the ability to practice to be patient and bear all the pain and discomfort of having a useless tooth developing in your mouth. It grants you the opportunity to be patient and not gnaw at anyone you meet at the cafeteria, in your office or even at home. I feel that if you can tolerate such pain for 10 years, then patience will be like a habit to your personality and it will be easier to be patient (and not melenting tak tentu pasal) when something is not right.

In that sense, even if you have to extract the rotten wisdom tooth in your mouth, the fact that you endured such pain and discomfort during the 10 years it took to grow, would have given you enough training on how to be a wiser person. You probably have to endure another 20-30 years of collecting invaluable experience with much patience before you could actually be a wise man.

So, good bye my top left wisdom tooth. Although you are not needed anymore, but thank you for growing in my mouth. It was very uncomfortable for you to have been there but I needed the constant training.

BECAUSE OF YOU OH ROTTEN TOOTH, I HOPE I CAN BE A WISER PERSON!

Tooth adjourned!