Oral health
Our ancestors had much more straight teeth than we
In Switzerland, 35% of the population has already worn a dental apparatus. The teeth in the back seems more frequent in modern populations, partly because of our diet.
Our teeth are less straight than those of our ancestors.
Unsplash/Atikah Akhtar
Rings or gutters, nowadays, there are no longer the number of mouths decorated with dental devices. According to the latest publication of the Federal Statistics Office dedicated to oral health, in 2022, 35% of the Swiss population had already worn a dental apparatus once in their life. “This share has been increasing constant for twenty years (2012: 28%; 2002: 23%)”, said the press release released last April.
But have poorly aligned smiles have always been so common? Not if we believe the latest research in this area, reports an article in the «National Geographic» Posted this summer. “If malocclusions […] have been observed in our hunter-gatherer ancestors, they seem to be more frequent in modern populations, “said the American magazine.
Jaws adapted to hard meats
Several hypotheses could explain this evolution and the first is on our plate. “The first hunter-gatherers had wide and powerful jaws, adapted to the demanding task of chewing hard meats, fibrous vegetables, seeds and nuts, describes the” National Geographic “.
But about 12,000 years ago, the human gradually swapped hunting against agriculture. “By replacing raw and hard foods with more soft and more processed foods, the effort necessary to chew, which allowed our jaws to shrink over time,” unroll our colleagues. And who says smaller jaw that is overlapping teeth.
More sensitive to our oral health
But Stanford experts question this reading. According to them, this narrowing of the jaw is more likely due to generational changes rather than a long -term genetic evolution. “The speed at which jaws Human has changed, especially in the past centuries, is far too fast to be the result of an evolution, ”they write in a study published in 2020. They point to other factors linked to lifestyle, such as posture.
Environmental or genetic factors also explain the existence of poorly aligned teeth in the early days of humanity already. And Sue Herring, emeritus professor at the University of Washington, to point: “Our modern society is much more sensitive to aesthetic problems. I think we are much more aware of the malocclusions today than in the past. ”
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