I know most people have them, so I did a little research to check the cause behind my little genetic oddness. And turns out, yes, it’s evolutionary.

Some thousands of years ago, a random mutation arose which suppressed the formation of wisdom teeth, a trait that then spread and now accounts for the lack of wisdom teeth among some modern humans.

Like most mammals, humans' ancestors had four sets of three molars (for a total of 12, with six in both the upper and lower jaw) used to help chew and grind food. Unlike other mammals, however, humans underwent a period of evolution in which the brain greatly expanded in size. This created an architectural problem; with a much larger brain case, the jaw had to become narrower so that it could still connect to the lower part of the skull.

Short story, there isn’t enough space on our jaws for this many teeth, which is why they cause severe pain to grow and lots of dental problems etc. And frankly, we don’t need them with our modern diet, so evolution is slowly getting rid of it. More and more people don’t grow wisdom teeth at all.

The mutation is advantegous (I am definitely happy to have missed all the pain I saw others go through), so the current percentages are likely to get higher as the years go by. Right now about 35% of people don’t have any, but the number is higher with certain enthnicities.

Science is fun! Source: http://www.livescience.com/27529-missing-wisdom-teeth.html