Missing Wisdom Teeth May be Due to Childhood Dental Anesthesia

The X-rays of nearly 8% of the children who had received anesthesia revealed lack of wisdom tooth buds.

Wisdom tooth buds, which are very small with nearly same diameter as that of the injection needle, develop around four years of age. Dental anesthesia is generally given close to the wisdom tooth. Authors opine that the trauma caused by the needle while giving anesthesia could possible destroy the wisdom tooth buds, preventing further development.

The study is however limited by the small data. Researchers indicate the need to large scale study to confirm the link.

Source: Medindia