Yes very common actually. Getting your wisdom teeth extracted at ~16 is also extremely common - a sort of rite of passage.
> That sounds massively excessive for what usually is just pulling a teeth out.
So with above in mind, the wisdom teeth are typically still inside the jaw's bone at that age so extraction is a full on surgery at that point. Drilling through bone and then the tooth is not for the feint of heart - so that's why it's so common to do general.
It does raise the question. Should wisdom teeth be extracted so early when it's not truly necessary yet?
Personally, having lived abroad now where a large percentage of people around me still have their wisdom teeth - I've seen the pain and problems having wisdom teeth can have and how expensive it is if you do have a problem. Doesn't seem worth not extracting at a younger age when you have "more freedom".
That's how it works here indeed -- you get them pulled out when they are in the way or start causing problems. I didn't have any specific problems with them, mostly just annoying to clean and some were coming out in a bit weird angles.
I got mine out through my 20s and 30s, and they were all quite straightforward. Local anaesthesia, pull the tooth, done in 15 mins. And like the other commenter said, you're told to take some ibuprofen if you have pain afterwards.
> That sounds massively excessive for what usually is just pulling a teeth out.
So with above in mind, the wisdom teeth are typically still inside the jaw's bone at that age so extraction is a full on surgery at that point. Drilling through bone and then the tooth is not for the feint of heart - so that's why it's so common to do general.
It does raise the question. Should wisdom teeth be extracted so early when it's not truly necessary yet?
Personally, having lived abroad now where a large percentage of people around me still have their wisdom teeth - I've seen the pain and problems having wisdom teeth can have and how expensive it is if you do have a problem. Doesn't seem worth not extracting at a younger age when you have "more freedom".