One reason is that our jaws have been shrinking, and our teeth haven't quite caught up. Most people beyond a certain age develop crooked teeth. Another is that some human children suck their thumb and develop buck teeth as a result. Few animals have a thumb to suck!
A key precipitating factor for malocclusion relates to the size of our jaws. For healthy development, jaws must be able to provide sufficient room for all of the thirty-two teeth that grow in the mouth. Over time, our teeth have grown crooked because our jaws have grown smaller.
If Mr Irwin is more referring to the alignment rather than individual shape of the teeth, humans have a reduced jaw line (reduced facial prognathism) compared with our ancestors, and there is simply less space proportionally for us to grow our teeth into than other animals.
Most other vertebrate creatures do not have the same dental problems that we do. They rarely have crooked teeth or cavities.
But over time, our teeth have grown crooked because our jaws have grown smaller. It all emanates from cultural shifts within important daily actions we seldom think about — chewing, breathing, or the position of our jaws at rest. And industrialization changed everything.
Ancient Chompers Were Healthier Than Ours : Shots - Health News By examining ancient dental plaque, researchers have found that prehistoric diets made for healthier mouths. The addition of flour and sugar to modern diets may have set the stage for oral disease.
Cavemen chewed on sticks to clean their teeth and even used grass stalks to pick in between their teeth. Without the availability of high-quality toothbrushes and toothpaste, however, cavemen's teeth were more susceptible to cavities and decay, even with a healthy, carbohydrate-free diet.
Folks in the Stone Age had those larger jaws and beautiful teeth because they lived on a diet of meat and vegetables that they hunted and gathered every day. Eventually, farms came into the picture, and people started to learn different ways to prepare, cook, and store food.
Statistics show that only 35% of Americans are born with straight teeth. And while achieving a perfect smile is the number one reason why people go to an orthodontist, orthodontic treatment can also help you preserve the health of your teeth for longer.
The museum's team of bone and tooth experts use super-powered imaging scanners and an electron microscope that can show a sliver of hard tissue at 40,000 times its actual size. Monge pinpoints the emergence of crooked smiles to perhaps 150, 200 years ago.
Surprisingly, analysis of skeletons from the middle ages suggest that people actually had quite healthy teeth! They used rough linen cloths to clean their teeth, often accompanied with a variety of pastes and powders used to whiten teeth and preserve fresh breath.
But it turns out that we actually have less healthy teeth than our ancestors. In fact, archaeologists say that prehistoric humans had much better teeth than we do today. It all started with farming, says Alan Cooper, the director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA.
Front teeth and jaws have the job of tearing food and making it small enough to chew. Molars are in charge of grinding food up for swallowing. With softer foods, the human jaw hasn't had to work as hard and has shrunk, and crooked teeth have been a result.
According to the fossil record, ancient humans usually had straight teeth, complete with wisdom teeth.
All of those factors are strongly influenced by genetics — so if you have your mom's lips, that may also mean you have your mom's teeth. That could mean inheriting a straight set of teeth from your parents, but it could also mean inheriting some unattractive crookedness that you may need to correct with braces.
Believe it or not, only 35 percent of adults have perfect teeth.
A study in the American Journal of Orthodontics & Dentofacial Orthopedics discovered that people with straight teeth and ideal smiles were viewed as more intelligent and more likely to be hired for a job. Subjects in another study rated people with straight teeth as happier, more successful, smarter, and wealthier.
Ancient people also ate a lot of fibrous foods, which acted as "nature's toothbrush" by flushing away food and bacteria. No food and bacteria lingering in the mouth meant no plaque on their teeth.
The Egyptians
The desire for straighter teeth can be traced all the way back to Ancient Egypt. Some mummified remains were found with metal and catgut wrapped around their teeth in an attempt to straighten them. Yikes! We can't imagine that procedure being very pleasant.
Fibrous foods – Ancient humans ate mostly fibrous foods. These are both beneficial for digestion and helpful to the teeth – the fibers act as natural toothbrushes and scrub away food particles, bacteria and plaque from the teeth.
Frank Medina, otherwise known as the "King of Windmills," has never had a cavity in his life. That would not be so unusual, except that he is 94 years old. Ripley's Believe it or Not calls him the “oldest man in the world with all his teeth who has never had a cavity."
In fact, cavities have now been found in tooth fossils from nearly every prehistoric hominin species studied. They were probably caused by eating certain fruits and vegetation as well as honey. These lesions were often severe, as in the case of cavities found on the teeth of the newly discovered species, Homo naledi.
A low-sugar diet, rich in fruit and vegetables — along with fluorine that was present in a local water source— gave them their pearly whites. (The Mediterranean diet scores again!) The only dental damage was apparently due to the people's habits of "cutting or snapping objects with their jaws," ANSA adds.
“They had really good teeth – they ate a diet that contained few sugars, and was high in fruit and vegetables,” orthodontist Elisa Vanacore said at a press conference last week.
Ancient people who lived in the north were healthier. They had better teeth and less cancer. The most ancient individuals were less likely to have been predisposed to cancer and neurological/psychological conditions.