Bev Byng, age 11, of alliston, Ont., Canada, for her questicn:

WHAT ARE WISDOM TEETH?

A person has two complete sets of teeth during his lifetime, and the beginnings of them ail are in his gums whey. he's born. The first 20, which we call baby teeth, begin to

push up during a child's first year. By about the age of 2 years, ail of the first set are in and working, the first of

which {the central incisors; arrived between the ages o and 6 months.

By the time a child is about 6 years old, his permanent teeth start to come out, and ay the time he reaches adulthood he will have acquired 32 teeth  16 on the upper jaw and 16 on the lower jaw.

First out are two fiat front teeth on the top and two on the bottom called central incisors. These are the cutters. Four lateral incisors, two top and two bottom, are next to arrive when the child is between 7 and 9 years old. Beside these come two cuspids on each jaw for tearing, and they arrive between the ages of 9 to 11 years.

First premolars, which are used for grinding food, arrive when a child is between 10 and 12, with second premolars coming out between the 11th and 13th years. First permanent molars arrived when the child was between 6 and 7.

Moving farther back into the mouth we come to two teeth on top and two on the bottom which are called third molars or wisdom teeth. These do not usually come out until about the age of 18 or later, and with some people ! hey never come out at all. They are called wisdom teeth because by the time they arrive we are nearly grown up and are supposed to be very wise.

Wisdom teeth, like all of the molars, are used exclusively for grinding and crushing food.

Incisors, cuspids and bicuspids have only one root, while molars and wisdom teeth have two or three.

When our teeth are properly cared for, they will remain healthy and last a lifetime. Each tooth is set into a bony socket in either the upper or lower jaw. Wisdom teeth in some people become imbedded in the socket and have to be removed by dental surgery. Since we nave other molars, the loss of wisdom teeth is not at all a serious problem.