Apparently, cavemen (and cavewomen?) were dirty, filthy, ragged people. But they had very nice teeth.
The dirty, ragged part is understandable. After all, in the Mesolithic period there were no washing or sewing machines. And, unless your cave was near a convenient waterfall, a shower was out of the question. That much can be gleaned by scientists studying remains of those ancient peoples, along with the tools they used, as well as the foods which made up their diet.
And that’s where the nice teeth came in.
Apparently, since the advent of industrialized, mass produced food in the last 150 years, our mouths are taking a beating. And it’s our modern teeth which are suffering the most.
According to Nature.com, a study of the lifestyles of Neolithic peoples has lead to the conclusion that our ancient ancestors didn’t need to see a dentist very often. Which is good, considering they probably didn’t have very many at the time. Apparently, hunting and gathering were just about the only career choices available in those days.
The study, conducted by Dr Christina Adler of the Australian Center for Ancient DNA, University of Adelaide, looked at the skeletal remains of 34 Europeans and found that their teeth were remarkably free of cavities and retained much more of the vital dental plaque which protects teeth from harmful bacteria and decay.
“What we found was that the early hunter-gatherer groups really had a lot lower frequencies of any of the disease-associated bacteria compared to what you see today, and that the number of species per person’s mouth, or the diversity, was much higher in the past,” says Adler.
The findings lead to the assumption there’s something in our food today which promotes unusually virulent tooth decay. Scientists have long suspected that the modern diet, full of refined carbohydrates and sugars, has given us mouths dominated by cavity-causing bacteria. This study seems to bear that suspicion out.
Of course, the trade-off has been an extended lifespan, thanks mostly to a softer lifestyle. Who knows what those cave people’s teeth would’ve looked like if they’d lived past the age of 30 or so?
And just think. No flossing… Via, Bubblews.com