Experts Who Are Going to Antarctica for Work Must Get Two Organs Removed From Their Bodies

It might seem rather a weird connection, but ancient Viking warriors and Antarctica’s climate researchers have something in common- a lot in fact. As some movies portray, Vikings were seafaring people who sailed in longboats, dressed in leathery, drab-colored overcoats, and looted villages. But it is little known that these people held mystical beliefs about teeth. As per The Guardian archaeologists excavated a site in England that turned out to be a mass grave of Viking warriors with their teeth filed in ornamental horizontal patterns in 2011. Researchers believed that the purpose of this mass teeth removal was to showcase their status as great fighters and their ability to withstand excruciating pain.

Now, Antarctica’s climate scientists aren’t pillaging lands or raiding remote settlements, but like Vikings, they do have to navigate tough terrains and challenging climates. And sometimes, they’ve to get their teeth removed if they wish to go ahead with their Antarctic expedition, according to a press release by Northwestern University. Despite being a cool white wonderland, Antarctica, the world’s southernmost continent, is one of the most inhospitable and harshest locations on the planet.

There’s little precipitation and lots of sudden blizzards. Plus, strong wind gusts continuously slap its frozen icy desert unexpectedly and ferociously. Added to these, the accelerating global warming is further catalyzing the unforgiving nature of this continent. As strange as it may sound, but this unpredictability of its weather poses a serious risk for researchers who may have wisdom teeth. For this reason, almost every researcher heading on a project in Antarctic terrain is required to have their wisdom tooth removed.

“Wisdom teeth could pose a serious problem if they were to become painful while in Antarctica. All of the stations are equipped with skilled medical personnel, but having oral surgery is not an option while at the station. For this reason, almost everyone traveling to Antarctica has had their wisdom teeth removed,” explained Kevin Peters, graduate researcher in Antarctica, in an article in Science. Peters described that despite getting positive results in other medical tests like eye tests, blood tests, and flexibility tests, he was asked to get his wisdom teeth removed if he wanted to join the field team in Antarctica. He got it removed.

Something similar happened with Laura Mattas, a University of Maine undergraduate senior. At the 12th annual Comer Abrupt Climate Change Conference in 2018, Mattas described her wisdom teeth story. She went to Antarctica for the first time in 2016 to study the expansion of alpine glacier ice sheets. After passing her screening test, she was allowed to go ahead with her wisdom teeth intact. “They haven’t taken mine, but it’s a current debate with my dentist,” she described while biting into a grilled cheese sandwich at the conference. But just a month later, she received a notice that she had to remove this tooth.

Mattas and Peters aren’t the only scientists who've had their wisdom teeth removed. Nearly everyone who desires to venture into the brutal terrain of Antarctic exploration is required to get these painful molars extracted from their jawbones. One of the reasons why researchers are urged to remove their wisdom teeth is that they might get an infection. “[The National Science Foundation (NSF)] is worried that you might have an infection from an impacted wisdom tooth while you’re in Antarctica, where treatment options are limited,” explained Penn State geologist Richard Alley, who also got his wisdom tooth removed in 1984.  

“Believe it or not, dental is one of our highest complications down there… Teeth break. You get cavities. But we require wisdom teeth to be removed only when they are abnormal,” explained James McKeith, the Medical Director for the NSF-managed United States Antarctic Program. And although a rescue aircraft can always be dispatched in emergencies, owing to extreme darkness and low temperatures, this is not always possible. Due to these extreme conditions, a Russian surgeon, Leonid Rogozov, was forced to remove his own appendix in 1961 when he got an unbearable pain in his belly, as per BBC. Thankfully, not all researchers are pressured to remove their wisdom teeth- some of them, like Mattas and Peters, know that they’ve to be prepared for this.