At the age of 9 years 327 days, Ryan Scarpelli (USA, born September 3, 2011) became the the youngest person to have a wisdom tooth extracted.
This record was last broken 20 years ago in 2002 when Matthew Adams (USA) had his two lower wisdom teeth removed at the age of 9 years 339 days.
Wisdom teeth, also known as third molars, are placed behind the other two molars in each quadrant of the mouth. They are the last permanent teeth to come out and usually do so in the late teens or early 20s.
Ryan Scarpelli’s record-breaking wisdom tooth was first noticed in April 2021 by his orthodontist, Dr Kelly Morgan of Morgan Orthodontics in Virginia.
A 3D X-ray showed that a wisdom tooth and molar were growing on top of each other in the upper left quadrant of his mouth.
“I was shocked. I couldn’t feel it at all,” Ryan recalled.
“My orthodontist told me it had to be removed so the molar would fall properly.”
Ryan was referred to an oral surgeon, Dr. Craig Vigilante of Potomac Surgical Arts, who confirmed that the tooth needed to be extracted to make room for his second upper left molar to fall.
On July 27, 2021, Ryan sat in Dr Vigilante’s chair to have his wisdom tooth removed. He did not yet know that he was the youngest person ever to undergo this procedure.
Ryan said he felt “very scared” when he sat down for the first time.
“I didn’t know if it would hurt or how it would feel when it was removed.”
At the time, he hadn’t yet lost all of his baby teeth (Ryan’s last tooth fell out in the summer of 2022).
Although Ryan didn’t feel pain while his wisdom tooth was growing in his mouth, he did feel some after it was removed.
“It felt like I got punched in the mouth really hard,” he said.
In the days following his surgery, Ryan could only consume soft foods and liquids such as milkshakes, jelly, yogurt and applesauce.
On the plus side, Ryan was very excited to be able to keep his extracted tooth, especially as he had no recollection of receiving it during the hazy post-op.
“They must have given it to me while I was still asleep because I couldn’t find it, but the next day I found it in my pocket,” Ryan said.
“It was scary, but it really wasn’t that bad. And before I knew it, my mouth was back to normal.” – Ryan Scarpelli
After Ryan’s surgery, his mother, Shelly Scarpelli, had a feeling her son might have broken a world record.
“I knew that 9 years old was too young to have a wisdom tooth removed, so I did some research and found out that the youngest person on record was 9 years and 339 days old,” he recalls.
After calculating Ryan’s exact age at the time of his tooth extraction, Shelly realized that Ryan had indeed broken a record of 20 years!
Most importantly though, Shelly is “very grateful” that Ryan’s orthodontist caught the problem early and was able to fix it right away, avoiding further complications.
On receiving his Guinness World Records title, Ryan said, “it feels really good and it makes me proud.”
As mentioned earlier, wisdom teeth usually come out between the ages of 17-25. However, Ryan isn’t the only exception to the record-breaking rule.
The the oldest person to have a wisdom tooth removed was Robert W. Gray (USA), who was 94 years 253 days old when a wisdom tooth was discovered during a routine dental cleaning on August 23, 2017.
