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Human mouths seem to require a lot of maintenance. Constant brushing, flossing, and the like are supposedly necessary to keep our teeth from decaying. So what did people do before modern dentistry? Today, we explore the fascinating reasons why our ancient ancestors often had lower rates of tooth decay than us. We briefly trace the history behind the human mouth’s fall from grace, and the ways people tried to get by with rotten teeth. We’ll then touch on George Washington’s horrible dentures and explain the value of fluoride.

Thanks to all of our Patreon supporters for helping us to improve the quality of our content! A special thanks to Bobby and Sean!


Sources:

Barras, Colin. “How Our Ancestors Drilled Rotten Teeth.” BBC News, BBC, 29 Feb. 2016, www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160229-how-our-ancestors-drilled-rotten-teeth.

“Dental Caries (Tooth Decay) in Adults (Age 20 to 64).” National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, July 2018, www.nidcr.nih.gov/research/data-statistics/dental-caries/adults.

“Drills, Dentures and Dentistry: An Oral History.” BBC, 30 Mar. 2015. [Excellent, short documentary on Western dental care in the last few hundred years]

Hermanussen, Michael. “Stature of Early Europeans.” Hormones, vol. 2, no. 3, 2003, pp. 175–178., doi:10.14310/horm.2002.1199. [The drop in height in the Neolithic period]

Humphrey, L. T., et al. “Earliest Evidence for Caries and Exploitation of Starchy Plant Foods in Pleistocene Hunter-Gatherers from Morocco.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 111, no. 3, 2014, pp. 954–959., doi:10.1073/pnas.1318176111.

Pezo, Luis, and Sabine Eggers. “Caries Through Time: An Anthropological Overview.” Contemporary Approach to Dental Caries (2012): n. pag. Web. [Much of the information on prehistoric rates of dental decay can be found here]

Steele, J., et al. “Total Tooth Loss in the United Kingdom in 1998 and Implications for the Future.” British Dental Journal, vol. 189, no. 11, 2000, pp. 598–603. Nature.com, doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.4800840a.

Willis, Anna, and Marc F. Oxenham. “The Neolithic Demographic Transition and Oral Health: The Southeast Asian Experience.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2013, doi:10.1002/ajpa.22343. [This also includes some interesting information on how higher rates of pregnancies in agricultural societies caused higher rates of tooth decay for females]

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