Teeth a design flaw in humans (re: rotting)

Not sure how caveman teeth faired up to life when they were just eating natural stuff, but teeth seem to be a weak part of the human body. Wether thats down to modern food additives and excessive amounts of sugar I dont know, but surely our cleaning methods will be far more advanced than cavemens so could maybe outweigh the lack of sugars in their diet?

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


When you consider that the human body was old at fourty, and the age of death was about that avarage for the last ten thousand years, i suppose rotting teeth might just be one of the factors that stuffed the human body up.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard

I forget exactly which people or part of the world it was now (I think somewhere in Africa) but these people chew on a certain type of wood to clean their teeth and it seems to work quite well. The modern diet with all its sugary content doesn't help us though, along with fluoride of course.



reply to post by anonentity

I think you will find that the 40 year lifespan was mainly for the general population. The rich, the nobility and many religious figures lived to quite a ripe old age, even back then. The only people I am aware of that needed help when teeth problems developed are Eskimo types. The story goes that they needed someone to pre-chew their food before they could eat it. Tasty huh?

Thats true I guess, maybe teeth were never 'designed' to last at least double that amount of time.

I remember reading in physical anthropology class that humans didn't show classic signs of dental decay until corn was added to the diet (corn is actually fairly sweet). Apparently, when we were hunter-gatherers, our teeth fared much better. When we introduced agriculture and had certain crops available that had more sugars in them, decay became a fact of existence.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


I think teeth are a flaw, like wisdom teeth, what's all that about???

I still have mine (29), and it's not all bad. To scared to get em pulled. So I probably won't.

reply to post by MoosKept240


My wisdoms are poking through, get a funny itchy burning type pain for a few days every few months or so. Dentist said its normal when there coming through and no need to get them pulled. I think id be to scared to tho like you lol.

And ew thats gross about people getting their food 'pre chewed' Id rather just drink soup all day.

reply to post by FissionSurplus


to the OP, i think the real "flaw" in the system is the diet of our modern american culture.

to fissionsurplus, i think this is akin to what you're talking about

One simply cannot advocate a certain way to eat without considering the work of Dr. Weston Price. Dr. Price was a dentist in the early 1900s around the time when processed food was first introduced. He was concerned about the increased, widespread dental disease and poor health of his patients. He noticed they were suffering from more and more chronic degenerative diseases and the children had a greater number of cavities and more crooked teeth than ever before. He had heard of native people in other countries, untouched by civilization and processed food, with perfect teeth and exceptional health. Dr. Price traveled around the world, visiting and studying these people and their diets. He visited with and examined 14 groups of native people and found on average less than 1% of tooth decay and perfectly straight teeth in all the people he visited. The amazing thing was that not one of these people had ever used a toothbrush. He found no incidence of any of the degenerative diseases that are so widespread in our culture.

reply to post by metalshredmetal


GUess that kind of confirms it, maybe with a natural diet teeth are much more tough and long lasting. Also in animals like dogs (or at least ours who is only ever fed dog food) we never see any tooth decay in our last one who lived 12 years and our current one either. Same goes for our rabbits lol.

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


Ya, I was supposed to. But I opted not to. Some crowding has happened, but only on the bottom so I don't care. Sometimes I get pain, but no biggie ha.

I am sure our diet plays a big role in our mouths. I am a heavy smoker, so that contributes.

I know of people that were under stress and would grind there teeth, and has caused lots of damage.

Plus fighting or extreme activity.

And that sometimes, they just don't come in right. And problems occur naturally.

I find it possible that our teeth will eventually get stronger as the generations pass. If you look at our past, we have had a drastic change in diet from just 50 years ago, and the farther you look back, the simpler our diets were. This may have something to do with it.

What I am wondering though is how the advent of oral hygiene will affect the evolutionary change in people's teeth. Will they not become stronger because many people keep their teeth clean enough, negating the body's need to bolster them? I think this is a possibility. So, for the sake of future generations, let's all lose our toothbrushes!!! Just kidding, lol.

IMHO the worst desing flaw is the horrible pain bad teeth cause. Normally pain makes sense. If you are hurt, you protect the part of your body which is hurt and give it time for regeneration. But your teeth cannot regenerate. At least we have it better than those poor marsupials. They have only one set of teeth. Once broken or outworn - no more chewing for kangaroos and koalas.

Teeth can regenerate if the cavity isn't too deep.

Destroyed tooth structure does not fully regenerate, although remineralization of very small carious lesions may occur if dental hygiene is kept at optimal level.[1] For the small lesions, topical fluoride is sometimes used to encourage remineralization. For larger lesions, the progression of dental caries can be stopped by treatment. The goal of treatment is to preserve tooth structures and prevent further destruction of the tooth. Aggressive treatment, by filling, of incipient carious lesions, places where there is superficial damage to the enamel, is controversial as they may heal themselves, while once a filling is performed it will eventually have to be redone and the site serves as a vulnerable site for further decay.[8]

en.wikipedia.org...

edited to add that since people think I'm making stuff up

I dont know about "flawed" since the enamel is the hardest thing your body has...

Maybe our habits are flawed?

Prehistoric man's teeth actually tended to be in much worse shape than those of modern man, as they tended to eat a lot of grit with their meals. Their main method of processing food such as wild grains was by stone grinding, and that process naturally introduced a lot of finely crushed stone grit into their food. By the time they reached what we'd call middle aged they were essentially toothless old men.

I've had quite a few dental issues during my lifetime aswell, but aside from a few cavities I'm only missing one tooth, but another is on its way out. Its a painful process, but I'm thankful that I'm alive in an era were a simple infected tooth isn't a fatal condition.

reply to post by anonentity


The "average" life expectancy of ancient man is skewed by infant and child mortality.

A paleolithic human who survived to the age of 15 had a life expectancy comparable to the global average today.

Our teeth rot because we eat processed sugar and carbohydrates, and don't get enough roughage.

If we spent our days gnawing on bones, roots, and other tough, fibrous food sources, our teeth wouldn't require the same amount of brushing and dental hygiene to stay healthy.

That being said... people did used to lose their teeth. Even paleolithic peoples. But they were fed liquid and hand-processed food-stuffs by their community. Our ancient ancestors revered the elderly, and kept them alive, even when they were sick or unable to feed themselves. The fossil records attest to this type of behavior, going back hundreds of thousands of years.

Reply to post by mnmcandiez

i need to look into this regenerating teeth thing. I got smashed when i was 16 now me meat eating teeth, (the two sharp top ones) are f***ed. Wouldnt mind growing another set of teeth...


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by mnmcandiez

Teeth can regenerate if the cavity isn't too deep.

Ive not heard that before. Can you link to any information source that can backup this claim?

Me and my aunt were just talking about something similar. We both agreed that evoultion screwed us out of good teeth. I wish we had shark teeth you know? Not like rows of them, but that if you lost a tooth it would just come back.

I personally believe it's about time that we evolved a third set of teeth!
The life expectancy of modern man is vastly improved, compared to our early equivilant!
Or perhaps we should be more like sharks,and have a new tooth pop up everytime one falls out!