Is the death rate for wisdom teeth extractions increasing?

No: Dental extractions are so routine that when a death results, the event receives outsized coverage in the media. The risk of death from out-patient oral surgery under anesthesia is close to 1:1, 000, 000.

Extremely rare: Extremely rare. I was at a conference recently where there was a slight increase. But the numbers are so small, that you are safer having the teeth extracted, than driving to the docs office to have them extracted.