Healthcare professions are highly prestigious. And many of them, such as dentistry, are also quite old. Getting into them in college or university is usually very complicated, too.

What is the consequence of this? They tend to be very elitist. The ambiance I knew at my university was incredibly toxic. The most extreme example I can share: a student committed suicide in 2013, largely due to the intense bullying and harassment he suffered from a specific professor. The poor guy had mental health issues to begin with, of course, but the way that professor treated him played a big role. You can read the news here (in Spanish).

If things were bad with professors, they were not any better between students. A group of around twenty people in my class called themselves la élite and had a WhatsApp group of their own, apart from the main one, so go figure!

In general, there was a big, noticeable contrast between those that came from families of dentists, and the rest of us, with no relatives in the profession, and often from humbler layers of society. Like the Finnish novelist Mika Waltari would say in Sinuhe, the Egyptian (1945): “I was born with manure between my toes”. My parents are not farmers, but I still grew up among greenhouses in Almería, in “the vegetable garden of Europe” (la huerta de Europa). And my first job ever, a summer job, consisted of harvesting lettuce in an open field in the Guadix area.

Elitism is bad enough as it is. But add in the artistic element of dentistry, and the fact that all dentists are more or less equal, and paradoxically, you have the perfect breeding ground for continuous negative criticism, hate, inflated egos and all sorts of toxic behaviours. If we are all equal, but certain “dynasties” or “clans” exist, and multiple ways of treating patients are possible, it is unavoidable: some dentists consider their ways superior.

Artistic element? And are all dentists equal? Indeed. Dentistry is very far from being an exact science like theoretical physics or mathematics. Every dentist works under a different philosophy. And yes, all dentists are equal: hierarchy is hardly ever a thing in dental facilities employing multiple dentists. In my first job as a dentist in France, at a dental center, we had a sort of primus inter pares, “first among equals”: a more experienced colleague who helped and guided us, the new graduates, whenever needed. But he was still not our superior, and we were all free to decide how to treat our patients. I had a very nice first job experience there.

In a nutshell: universal truths, or unique alternatives of treatment, are hardly ever a thing in dentistry. Accordingly, the mentality of every dentist should be respected. Regarding wisdom teeth removals in particular, multiple clinical guidelines highlight the need for every dentist to make individual decisions, based on their experience and the particularities of each case. This is basic.

However, this is not how many people in the profession think and behave. I have gotten, and will continue to get, a lot of hate from fellow dentists for my highly critical point of view on the removal of third molars, even if it is based on evidence, clinical guidelines (see the Resources section), and my own experience. This is absolutely sad, and plainly pathetic. Because, my dear reader, if you also happen to be a dentist, understand this: just like Rudolf Virchow was not a better doctor than Santiago Ramón y Cajal, neither are you a better dentist than me.

Wisdom teeth get removed excessively and unnecessarily, and this is a fact. A fact I see every day at my job, in front of me. And that I can further confirm by interacting with people from all over the world online. It is not just my opinion.

I am not the only one who understands this. And we will continue to inform, educate and help people make wise choices regarding their wisdom teeth. We have the evidence and the guidelines on our side. So much so, that when we oppose unnecessary wisdom teeth removals, we are not going against “the establishment”. Quite the contrary! In fact, I would be wary of any person that pretends to go “against the establishment”, as they are often what in Spanish we call magufos: defenders and promotors of pseudoscience.

Hear me out: defending the prophylactic removals of wisdom teeth is close to being pseudoscience, as such a brutal approach is often based on pure fallacies and fearmongering, when not superstition. So, being against children’s vaccines resembles promoting the prophylactic removal of healthy wisdom teeth. It doesn’t resemble what this project is for, because I am no friend of pseudoscience.

You heard me right. I am aware that opposing the removal of wisdom teeth has a certain “anti-establishment”, “alternative” feeling to it. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. I am sorry to disappoint you, my dear reader, if by any chance you arrived here expecting to read and learn about alternative medicine or anything like that.

I criticize the unnecessary removal of wisdom teeth, because that is the only right thing to do. And I do that, just like I recommend dental care products with fluoride, I do root canals and crowns, I advise against replacing amalgams, I send adult or teenagers to the orthodontist to get braces, and I fill teeth because I understand that cavities cannot heal on their own. And by the way, I have read Weston A. Price’s Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (1939). And I even went to a goat farm in Roquetas de Mar to get raw milk when I was a follower of the WAPF theories as a teenager. We’ve all had our phases.

For me, the pseudoscientific phase is well over. I have had multiple arguments where I argued that children’s vaccines don’t cause autism, and are good and necessary. Or that chemtrails are fake, but the 1969 American Moon landing was real. Baseless myths, especially about wisdom teeth, exist in my area of expertise too, so this project is just another way to spread scientific skepticism.

No matter if you think I’m too inexperienced (“OK, zoomer”) or too old (“OK, boomer”). Too cheeky, or too chinless. Too serious, or too unserious. Or too pathetic for being from “a third world country”. Hey, maybe you are right! But just like Antonio Machado wrote: La verdad es la verdad, dígala Agamenón o su porquero. Meaning: The truth is the truth, whether it be told by Agamemnon or his swineherd.

I deserve to be respected

Saludos cordales.

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