You've probably had a cavity or 2...

You’ve probably had a cavity or two. Cavities are the most common disease in the world.

Imagine the bone that holds your teeth in place getting eaten away by a chronic infection…that’s periodontal disease (aka “gum disease”), and it’s happening right now to about 50% of the adults in the US.

Most kids have crooked teeth and need braces. Getting your wisdom teeth extracted (because your mouth is too small) is basically a rite of passage to adulthood.

What more could go wrong with our mouths?

Well, the odds are high that you breathe wrong with it, that the tongue is too big for it, and it’s ruining your sleep and your health.

This is all very common. But it’s not normal.

No other animals have the dental problems that we do. In the wild, animals rarely develop cavities or crooked teeth or stop breathing in their sleep.

Likewise, it wasn’t normal for our ancestors.

The fossil record shows that ancient humans didn’t have impacted wisdom teeth, rather they had robust jaws that accommodated all 32 teeth. They came in straight and didn’t develop cavities or gum disease.

These ancient teeth endure for millions of years in the fossil record, but we struggle to keep our teeth for one lifetime today.

Mother Nature designed our teeth to be stronger than steel, but now we have to use special daily care to preserve them.

In the scales of evolutionary biology, the downfall of our mouths has happened in the blink of an eye.

Why?

It’s because of what we’re putting in our mouths.

There is a mismatch between the foods we’re eating and the foods which our teeth and jaws evolved to chew on.

[bradleywesterford]

when humans only lived to 25, peridontal disease was much less.

[jonathanjohnson]

its all normal to loose teeth back then though