@Switchablesusie: Thanks for your insightful and thoughtful comments. My obvious and near-total lack of medical and dental knowledge notwithstanding, I must add that my pediatric dentist did not demur from removing my lower wisdom teeth. Indeed, he offered to do so, and I believe his work would have been excellent and my recovery relatively smooth and straightforward had he done so. His delicacy of skill, expert use of local anesthesia and analgesia, and sheer physical strength are in my lifelong experience nonpareil. Some of his fillings have lasted over forty years, and his appliance work has been a blessing to me for decades. His extractions were expertly performed as well.
In this last connection, my pediatric dentist's vision, sagacity, and good judgment proved invaluable. When my orthodontist opined that a badly decayed upper-right biscuspid should be subjected to root-canal and preserved to prevent what he described as "certain malocclusion" were it to be removed, my dentist respectfully disagreed, pulled the tooth (gone from caries -- unique in my experience), and then allowed my upper-left wisdom tooth to come in, resulting in perfectly acceptable, attractive, and comfortable alignment and occlusion with the upper-right wisdom tooth and decayed upper-right bicuspid both gone for good. My orthodontist -- who would have received a split-fee from the dentist to whom he wanted to refer me for the root-canal -- begrudgingly admitted the wisdom of my dentist's approach and the excellence of his work and his care as my dentition changed and my orthodontics developed. Indeed, my instant dentist has commended my pediatric dentist in absentia for his conservative approach and superlative work, much of which remains intact. He was a remarkable man, and I admired him and trusted him and still do, even after all these years.
It was only for reasons of intrafamilial politics (not germane here) that I was deprived forever of my pediatric dentist's care right after the successful bicuspid and wisdom-tooth extractions and was shunted to another, inferior dentist (who chain-smoked Benson & Hedges 100's during dental examinations and procedures -- when he wasn't engaging in inappropriate conduct with his female assistant) who made the referral to his overpriced, underskilled maxillofacial surgical colleague whose work was less than optimal.
I have no doubt that oral surgeons do great work everyday, and that you are correct in your statements about the relative difficulty of and risks inherent in removing lower wisdom-teeth versus upper wisdom-teeth. I attorn to the superiority of your objective knowledge, though my subjective experiences of course remain my own. I should never discourage anyone from getting whatever care they need, whether that care be rendered by a dentist or by an oral surgeon. Thanks again for your insightful and thoughtful comments.