On Wisdom...

I currently have a prime number of teeth. It is not a number that sits well with me. Even though my very slight OCD tendencies lead me to prefer prime numbers of things on most occasions, 31 is not a fun number of teeth to have.

The reason for is that this week I had to have one of my wisdom teeth removed because it had decayed to such an extent that it was better for my long-term health to extract it than to save it. I could blame the fact that I hadn't gone to the dentist for months longer than I should have done because every arranged date had subsequently clashed with something else. I'm not going to though. The reason it got into such a state was a combination of poor eating habits (sugary junk food consumption is certainly one of my bigger vices), poor brushing habits (What's that? At least twice a day?!), and unhelpful genetics. At least I can currently do something about 2 of those factors...

I'm due to have two other wisdom teeth extracted over the next month for similar reasons. The post-operative pain as much as anything else is enough to make me want to only have the other top tooth 8 out (but I do think the symmetry of 30 teeth outweighs in my mind the shame of having only 29). That bottom one doesn't even hurt anyway.

I would like to improve my dental care. In fact I think I will make it my mid-year resolution. Maybe after all of this, the point of having those molars so-called wisdom teeth will have been to teach me - to make me wise up - about looking after my other teeth properly. Of course there are things that could aid me in this resolution. I'm sure that during the period of my life when I had a girlfriend I had less tooth trouble. I guess I had the impetus then; I should at least make my mouth a nice area for other people, even if I can't do it for myself!

Hmm...

As an aside, who came up with the name for our species "Homo sapiens" anyway. I mean, sure, we have been wise enough to invent complicated machines, form the most complicated societies in existence, and develop such crazy concepts as recognition of our own concsiousnesses, faith and democracy. We've pretty much been able to break down any barriers created by nature up to this point to allow us to increase our number exponentially. Still I bet Homo erectus never did anything as un-sapient as this: