606

submitted 10 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

43 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] sus@programming.dev 20 points 10 months ago

agriculture and its consequences (maybe)

[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 8 points 10 months ago

Kinda? Humans consume a lot more sugar than they did 10,000 years ago, in addition to other foodstuff that are terrible for your teeth

[-] sus@programming.dev 4 points 10 months ago

The one I was thinking of is the (hypothesized) reduction in jaw size due to less need for powerful chewing, while teeth stayed the same size leading to many problems

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Yeah. I remember a story about an anthropologist who went to a indigenous tribe, IIRC somewhere around the pacific, he took photos of everyone’s teeth. Everyone had straight teeth from the kids to the elderly. Then a generation later someone else did the same thing. Went to that tribe and took photos. Many kids had crooked teeth. The only thing that changed is that they adopted a Western diet.

Can’t remember the name of that anthropologist, though.

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

You get cavities from sugar not crooked teeth. It’s that our food has become softer over the last few thousand years. Our jaws don’t get enough exercise during their developmental years. So they don’t grow large enough for our teeth. It’s also why many people have impacting wisdom teeth.