If you told me that the expansion of dental coverage has led to an expansion of dental operations, including wisdom teeth removal, I wouldn't be surprised.
My daughter just had her wisdom teeth removed a week ago, and it's a non-trivial operation (both financially and physically). That said, there are some dividing lines between "medically necessary" and "orthodontally necessary" and "unnecessary" that the article sort of elides over.
Why You Might Want to Think Twice About Getting Your Wisdom Teeth Removed
It is well known that this is now an epidemic: By one count, Americans waste $750 billion a year on unproductive care.
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As someone who has all of his wisdom teeth, I've often wondered why so many people my age had them removed.
I had the first two removed in my mid-20's and the last two removed in my late-30's. In my case they came in more or less straight, but were so far back that I couldn't reach all of the surface area with my brush and they eventually got to a point that removal was necessary.
I had mine removed shortly after college, largely because they were coming in in such a way as to undo all the expensive orthodonture I'd received.
I had mine removed because at around age 19, I was in constant pain from the things. Like, that one chapter of CRYPTONOMICON bad. Getting them out was absolutely needed for me.
When I had mine out I had to go under…it was the first time I had General anesthesia….when I woke up I started crying and the guy recovering next to me crawled over and held my hand. To this day I have to have a nurse that sits next to me and hold my hand. I sort of kissed my nurse last time. 😳😊