• acosmichippo@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_jaw_shrinkage

      The main contributing factor to the recent increase in malocclusion is widely considered to be due to a sharp reduction in chewing stress, especially during critical periods of craniofacial growth.[10][1] Experiments done on non-human subjects have shown that induced nasal blockages and/or dietary changes earlier in life lead to maladaptive morphological change in their jaws, intended to simulate what we are observing globally in human children.[4] Significant craniofacial changes due to diet have even been experimentally shown in pigs during development; researchers fed groups either a hard-consistency diet or a soft-consistency diet, for eight months in total.[11] Drastic differences in jaw and facial musculature, facial structure, and tooth-crowding were observed; researchers directly related the findings to what we are observing more in human populations.[11]

      so too much damn baby food?

      • Caesium@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        more like eating more processed food. and I mean like ‘gone through a cooking process’ kind of way. We do a lot more now than just burn our meat and eat veggies raw to get nutrients. we simply just don’t need to work our jaws so hard to get what we need

        if only my wisdom teeth got the memo :+:

        • boogetyboo@aussie.zone
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          2 months ago

          Oh mine got the memo. They lay peacefully, horizontally in my jaw, like little Saddam Husseins until they decided they wanted to visit other parts of my jaw and make friends along the way.

      • ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I recall also reading about people in Australia and some other places with diets consisting of harder food for developing babies/toodlers having better jaw/teeth ratios and straighter teeth despite no regular access to a dentist, which kind of corroborates the findings.

          • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Average age is not average for those that reached adulthood. Most adults still lived to decent ages unless you select for very dire situations, like the Black Plague, or specific outbreaks of violence, etc.

            • abbadon420@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              That is true, but tooth get worse when you grow older. So to die younger means you’ll leave a nicer skull for archaeologists to find. The number 35 was arbitrarily chosen, but I now think your fact was slumbering in my mind when I chose that number.

              • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                But… teeth don’t change arrangement as you age. Straight teeth are straight teeth unless rare complications happen like you have a lot of wisdom teeth and they shove the other teeth out of alignment.

    • brillotti@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Our food is way softer so we don’t chew enough to maximise the growth of our maxillae and jaws.

    • lemmus@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      We eat soft, processed foods now. We used to graze and chew constantly, which helps the jaw grow properly.

    • cannedtuna@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I think I’d read before that it was because most of our foods now are soft foods so our teeth/jaws are not as strong.

    • ZoomeristLeninist [they/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      im p sure it has to do with stuff being easier to eat. we dont have to work with our jaw to tear or crush difficult foods since everything is processed or we have tools to make it easy. our jaws are underused, so they develop to be smaller than theyre supposed to be, and our teeth get crowded

    • Mango@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Everyone who’s replied to you so far are wrong and speculating. The real issue is actually lack of nutrition and exercise for the mouth. We’re not growing our jaws out quite right while our teeth are coming in.

        • Mango@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I’ll admit I don’t have a citation. I just remember it from a video about how this African dude had magnificent teeth because of the environment he grew up in.

          Edit: Oh nice, you found a wiki page which validates my thing!

    • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Before we cut our food in perfectly sized bites with utensils our ancestors used to do it by biting into large pieces of food with their front teeth. That would wear them down evenly to form a nice flat bite.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the skeleton of someone who died way younger than we think as well.

    • Belly_Beanis [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      Something else that affects our teeth (though I’m not sure if it affects growth) is sugar consumption. Our ancestors had very little access to sugar or even spices. They ate things like meat and veggies plain. Back in prehistoric times, this meant they wouldn’t have to brush their teeth, since the bacteria in their mouths wouldn’t have produced plaque.

      That’s why a lot of human remains of 80-year-olds from 20,000 BC have perfect teeth or only a few missing after those teeth got knocked out by getting hit in the face. If you’re ever stranded on a deserted island, you should avoid eating all those coconuts and bananas with every meal.