The main contributing factor to the recent increase in malocclusion is widely considered to be due to a sharp reduction in chewing stress, especially during critical periods of craniofacial growth.[10][1] Experiments done on non-human subjects have shown that induced nasal blockages and/or dietary changes earlier in life lead to maladaptive morphological change in their jaws, intended to simulate what we are observing globally in human children.[4] Significant craniofacial changes due to diet have even been experimentally shown in pigs during development; researchers fed groups either a hard-consistency diet or a soft-consistency diet, for eight months in total.[11] Drastic differences in jaw and facial musculature, facial structure, and tooth-crowding were observed; researchers directly related the findings to what we are observing more in human populations.[11]
I recall also reading about people in Australia and some other places with diets consisting of harder food for developing babies/toodlers having better jaw/teeth ratios and straighter teeth despite no regular access to a dentist, which kind of corroborates the findings.
more like eating more processed food. and I mean like ‘gone through a cooking process’ kind of way. We do a lot more now than just burn our meat and eat veggies raw to get nutrients. we simply just don’t need to work our jaws so hard to get what we need
Oh mine got the memo. They lay peacefully, horizontally in my jaw, like little Saddam Husseins until they decided they wanted to visit other parts of my jaw and make friends along the way.
Average age is not average for those that reached adulthood. Most adults still lived to decent ages unless you select for very dire situations, like the Black Plague, or specific outbreaks of violence, etc.
That is true, but tooth get worse when you grow older. So to die younger means you’ll leave a nicer skull for archaeologists to find. The number 35 was arbitrarily chosen, but I now think your fact was slumbering in my mind when I chose that number.
Before we cut our food in perfectly sized bites with utensils our ancestors used to do it by biting into large pieces of food with their front teeth. That would wear them down evenly to form a nice flat bite.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the skeleton of someone who died way younger than we think as well.
Why do our teeth grow in less perfectly now?
We eat soft, processed foods now. We used to graze and chew constantly, which helps the jaw grow properly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_jaw_shrinkage
so too much damn baby food?
I recall also reading about people in Australia and some other places with diets consisting of harder food for developing babies/toodlers having better jaw/teeth ratios and straighter teeth despite no regular access to a dentist, which kind of corroborates the findings.
more like eating more processed food. and I mean like ‘gone through a cooking process’ kind of way. We do a lot more now than just burn our meat and eat veggies raw to get nutrients. we simply just don’t need to work our jaws so hard to get what we need
if only my wisdom teeth got the memo :+:
Oh mine got the memo. They lay peacefully, horizontally in my jaw, like little Saddam Husseins until they decided they wanted to visit other parts of my jaw and make friends along the way.
because people with very bad teeth survive nowadays
Well, that mf didn’t survive either… He’s dead…
But he lived a long and happy life. He died at the ripe old age of 35
Average age is not average for those that reached adulthood. Most adults still lived to decent ages unless you select for very dire situations, like the Black Plague, or specific outbreaks of violence, etc.
That is true, but tooth get worse when you grow older. So to die younger means you’ll leave a nicer skull for archaeologists to find. The number 35 was arbitrarily chosen, but I now think your fact was slumbering in my mind when I chose that number.
Our food is way softer so we don’t chew enough to maximise the growth of our maxillae and jaws.
So… You’re saying I should eat more bones and chew on trees.
Nuts and bones. Tree bark of the yew tree when you inevitably get indigestion.
Yew wood, wouldn’t you?
I think I’d read before that it was because most of our foods now are soft foods so our teeth/jaws are not as strong.
Sugar content of our food is one of the reasons I read before as well.
Before we cut our food in perfectly sized bites with utensils our ancestors used to do it by biting into large pieces of food with their front teeth. That would wear them down evenly to form a nice flat bite.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the skeleton of someone who died way younger than we think as well.