Why did Gid give us too many teeth?

[made4more]

It never made sense to me. OK you get teeth.. You need your teeth, but in your early 20's you get teeth that you dont need, and don't have room for in your mouth. :think :scratch :hunh :/ :shrug :doh UH? so I'm 23 and I am getting my molars, and it's not fun. and I'm SO not looking foreward to going to the dentist.. no way.

but seriously, have our mouths gotten smaller over the centuries or what?

[Iarwain]

Weeellll I always tease my sister that I had less trouble with my wisdom teeth because our mom nursed me longer.... That is a factor. Long term breastfeeding plays a role in development of a nice wide dental arch. Bottle feeding and pacifier use are associated with a narrowed dental arch that has less room for teeth.

Interesting article that explains:

http://www.brianpalmerdds.com/bfeed_oralcavity.htm

[thomer]

I've also heard that before there was good dental hygene, the new teeth would take over for the ones that rotted..

[Herbwifemama]

Actually, what happened is that nutrition isn't as good as it used to be, and that causes malformations in the mouth- dental arch- you SHOULD have room for all your teeth in there. Before I read Weston A Price's work, I also thought they were in there to take over for rotted teeth, but that's not why.

Check out these pictures:
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price3.html
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price5.html
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price6.html
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price7.html
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price8.html
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price9.html
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price9.html
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price11.html

While you're being shocked at how bad some of the teeth are, take special note to look at the nice teeth as well, and remember, that not only do they not have access to orthodontics, but they don't even BRUSH their teeth!

[poleidopy]

wow, that's amazing!

[RubySlippers]

Weeellll I always tease my sister that I had less trouble with my wisdom teeth because our mom nursed me longer.... That is a factor. Long term breastfeeding plays a role in development of a nice wide dental arch. Bottle feeding and pacifier use are associated with a narrowed dental arch that has less room for teeth.

Now that is incredibly interesting!!!!
I can't emphasize enough how much this "hits" me.
I'm the only one of my family to have crowded teeth from a narrow arch.
One sibling was breastfed, while the other was a thumbsucker. The both had beautifully straight teeth, while mine were a mess. I neither breastfed nor thumb-sucked.
I'm off the read that article.

[made4more]

those links are awesome! I wish those foods were as cheap here as they r there! :giggle

[Singingmom]

This interests me too (and makes me a little more sad that I didn't nurse my first longer...he's had to have 4 teeth pulled already to make room for others to come down :()

And Amy, I had to tell you that your avatar is so cute! I like your hair cut. Have you been losing weight? You look great. :yes

[Soliloquy]

:nak2

The research that Weston A. Price did is AMAZING and yet has been ignored by allopathic medicine--go figure. :rolleyes You can learn more here:

http://www.westonaprice.org/

[Chris3jam]

What Messianicmama and LisaM said. . . . . :yes The research that Weston Price did was *awesome*. I always recommend that people get his book, "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration".

[Lisa]

It's not that nutrition isn't as good, it's that we eat a lot of processed food now that is so much easier to chew than what out ancestors ate. Therefore we don't develope the jaw muscles they had. When you develope jaw muscles, you also put stress on the jaw bones and that creates new bone growth. So it's simple a matter of our jaws not being as large as they used to be. We have more tooth crowding than our ancestors for that reason, but it's not true that our teeth are more unhealthy. I took a dental anthropology class way back when I was in college, and we got to see several examples of native american teeth before European contact. They all had probably just as many cavities, if not more, as we see today. The difference is that they got so many because the nature of their diet (rough food) wore down their teeth pretty quickly and made it much easier for cavities to develope.... but their teeth were very straight. I heard once, I forgot the source, to compensate for our diet it's a good idea to let your kids chew on sugar free gum while their teeth are developing.

[NayneeNoo]

That's really interesting. :think I'll have to read the remaining links when I have time.


Did anyone notice this in the second link?
Upper left, woman has a broken lower tooth. She has had twenty-six children with no tooth decay.
Now that's a houseful!!!

[Herbwifemama]

It's not that nutrition isn't as good, it's that we eat a lot of processed food now that is so much easier to chew than what out ancestors ate. Therefore we don't develope the jaw muscles they had. When you develope jaw muscles, you also put stress on the jaw bones and that creates new bone growth. So it's simple a matter of our jaws not being as large as they used to be. We have more tooth crowding than our ancestors for that reason, but it's not true that our teeth are more unhealthy. I took a dental anthropology class way back when I was in college, and we got to see several examples of native american teeth before European contact. They all had probably just as many cavities, if not more, as we see today. The difference is that they got so many because the nature of their diet (rough food) wore down their teeth pretty quickly and made it much easier for cavities to develope.... but their teeth were very straight. I heard once, I forgot the source, to compensate for our diet it's a good idea to let your kids chew on sugar free gum while their teeth are developing.


That makes a lot of sense, Lisa. I do think that jaw development does play a part. I read a great article somewhere on the internet (I cant go looking for it, but I'll try to find it later) that said that was one reason why humans should breastfeed- is because it develops the jaw in babies, and makes their faces more symmetrical, and therefore more attractive (as well as good for the teeth formation). But I still stand by my statement of better nutrition- I firmly believe that good nutrition plays a part in fewer cavities and dental malformations.

[Myrtle]

Did anyone notice this in the second link?
Upper left, woman has a broken lower tooth. She has had twenty-six children with no tooth decay.
Now that's a houseful!!!


I was just going to post something about that. Wow!! :jawdrop My dentist told me pregnancy did a real number on your gums and could cause a lot of problems, so I paid close attention to them when pg. Wonder how much of that is true and how much of it is just the way we do things now. Is it really pg that causes problems or what we do/eat when pg (or even before that prepares our bodies for being pg)? :think

[Herbwifemama]

I haven't read anything about it since I was pg myself, but I think it has something to do with the changes your immune system undergoes, and the expanded blood volume. Bloody noses are more common too.