teeth and our evolution

Cailleachdubh

[Is this a message that we are naturally not meant to live beyond our 20's or what,i mean in the days where there were no dentists and no knowledge of teeth or physicians,we bascially died at a certain age due to our teeth if tribal wars didnt get us first.

What do you think or make of it?]

Can I just add a few points from the point of view of dental analysis of ancient skeletal remains? From what I have seen and read about, severe dental caries is a relatively modern phenomenon (ie Post-1600s) that grew progressively worse the more refined sugar became a common part of our diets. People are generally surprised to see how healthy the teeth of our ancient predecessors were!

So the worst teeth I've ever seen have been in skeletons from the 1800s and 1900s. In medieval and pre-historic times, the major dental problem was generally not caries, but attrition (heavy wear), due to a coarse diet including stone-ground flour etc. Heavy attrition can also lead to absesses in severe cases.

Though people were not immune to tooth decay in the past - and there is probably also a genetic component to dental enamel strength/weakness - tooth decay in itself was certainly not a major problem or major cause of death until post-industrial times.