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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ม.ค. 2025
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You would think that without dentists and fluoride mouthwash, early humans would have terrible teeth. But tooth decay depends on access to sugars and starches -- meaning most early humans had decent teeth up until the Agricultural Revolution.
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I’m a dentist and I must tell you, more important than the amount of sugar(which isn’t good for your teeth or body in general), is also the consistency of food. Pasty or sticky food once you’ve chewed on it is a big factor.
I've heard before that small grains from the grindstones used to grind grains and such weren't great for our enamel hundreds of years ago either. Everything does seem to be sweetened with sweeteners, like sugar or worse, these days. 😅
@@megamanx466 Other sweetener do not cause cavities though as the bacteria cannot eat them.
@megamanx466 They may have believed that small grains of rock from grindstone were bad, but I very much doubt they actually were, depending on the size. We willingly put literal sand into our mouths two times a day via toothpaste, and it's a good thing.
Also as said sweeteners are not sugar. They have their own issues but accelerating tooth decay is not among them.
makes sense, my dog's vet has also advised that i stick to the dry kibble as it is better at keeping my dog's teeth clean
@williamguido7190 Real question: no dentist, hygienist, assistant, etc I've had has ever mentioned cleaning the bacteria mat in our mouth: the tongue. Why not?
The birds are laughing at us.
and the sharks.
@@Echo81Rumple83 And the crocks.
No, that's the noise they make when they clear the video cache.
Birds have like, parasites and bugs and such. No thanks.
? Geese have teeth, they have teeth on their tongue.
What I’m more amazed about is that science still cannot kill off streptococcus mutans yet when it’s like public enemy #1 for millions of years.
They're busy trying to cure cancer and other terminal disease.
S. mutans is not the only bacteria associated to caries. Also, not only is it hard to get rid of a whole species of microorganisms, doing so might be worse since it would mess with the balance of the oral microbiome, which could lead to potential worse diseases like candidiasis (fungal infections), and increase on periodontal disease, or maybe even a higher prevalence of oral cancers.
They've been trying to make a vaccine for years.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caries_vaccine
Achoo. 🤣Same could be said of ignorance as we haven't been around that long.
That’s exactly why. If it’s been around for that long, of course it would be quite resistant…
Also, the foods we eat are softer, so our jaws don't grow as much, leading to crowded teeth. This gives the bacteria more hiding places.
There was lots of jerky.
Do tougher foods cause our jaws to grow more?
@@adscomics In childhood when you are developing, yes. It will enhance the existing growth processes for your jaws.
We all watched that ted ed episode, poindexter
@@adscomics yes, most bones grow according to a number of factors, but tension and compression are amongst those factors. Dr Kevin Hunt has determined (I believe causally) that chimpanzee behavioural differences amounting to culture can lead to different leg and hip morphologies (think of walking upright or not as a choice). One of the biggest examples is also found amongst gorillas, the entire sagital crest grows based on jaw muscle tension.
And yes, there is pretty clear evidence that starting children (with monitoring) on harder foods at a younger age leads to a larger healthier jaw. Not much larger but enough that it helps with dental health.
I'm so glad to live in a time with easy access to dental care tools. I have bad oral genetics, so I'd totally be missing several teeth by now (33yo)
But it's also awesome to think what a difference genes can make. I'm 30, eat tonnes of sugar, no flossing (only brush 2x a day) and I have NEVER had cavities or needed a tooth pulled or braces or anything. My annual dentist checkups (mandatory here where I live in Europe, as then insurance covers everything in the case something does happen) last like 5 minutes, in and out. Never needed fillings, drillings or even professional cleaning.
I do have tonnes of other health issues though, it's just specifically my teeth that are (apparently) flawless :/ I do hope you live somewhere where access to dental care is not just available, but also affordable. They do so much for our general health.
@@Windmelodie That's so interesting. My father has very resilient teeth also, my brother inherited those genes
Oh I've got rough tooth health (i just had my routine dental appointment and they told me that I have 8 cavities that need to be drilled) but my mom has basically perfect teeth. I just don't get it.
@@northstarjakobs I could be many things I'm sure. the thickness of your enamel, how quickly teeth remineralize, how basic/alkaline your saliva is, etc.
@@juancuelloespinosa My dentist says that it could be connected to the medications I take, which wouldn't surprise me
You're not kidding. I've maxed out my dental benefits 2 years in a row, and I still have a lot of dental work to do.
Wow! You have any dental benefits.
@@North_West1 they aren't that hard to come by, you find an insurance company and you pay them .
I max mine out yearly and have been going over consistently; this year alone, I've already paid 8k out of pocket, a good chunk of my savings, and even had to sell my car to pay for it all. And here's the kicker, it has nothing to do with poor dental hygiene (at least not recently). I had some brain-dead dentists destroy my teeth in my early teens in middle school with giant amalgam fillings, which are now causing considerable problems in just about every tooth that had an amalgam placed.
@@AliYouru We are tooth siblings. I had a mega-amalgam filling on LR7 that (this is the fun bit I learned is common with them afterwards) expanded over the years until it shattered my tooth from the inside. I'm now also £8k down in dental work since November to strip every shred of amalgam out my face and replace it with composite.
The one that shattered I ended up replacing with a gold implant though, so swings and roundabouts.
"maxed out dental benefits" America is wild what are you guys up to
brb, I just need to go and brush my teeth.
Me too
Don't forget to floss too, at least once a day
And floss
same here
You still need to brush your teeth @@wesleythomas7705
I would like to add some things, for clarity
1- Agricultural revolution not only brought cavities but also periodontal disease (which includes gingivitis) to a higher prevalence.
2- S. mutans and its related mutans group are not the only microorganisms associated with caries, and in fact, inhabit in the saliva of most humans, many times without actually producing cavities since there are other factors associated (mentioned in the video) which have nearly as much importance as the microbial influence.
P.S: since we normally don't use antibiotics to treat caries, even if they get resistances, there shouldn't be much problem with removing cavities since that's a purely mechanical approach, but assessing what risks to our systemic health could a superbacteria inhabiting our mouths bring us is definitely an interesting research topic.
As for antibiotic resistance in s. mutans I suppose it can be caused by any antibiotics we take in for other diseases, as well as by the anibiotics we use in animal husbandry if the animals too are hosts to the bacteria. Also as bacteria can sometimes exchange genes between individuals (not just by division, but by horizontal gene transfer), antibiotic resistance in any bacteria could theoretically happen. I do not know though how probable it actually is.
@@ania7930 it is highly likely, yeah
2 is wrong because there are resistances that form in response to things that aren't antibiotics. For example, chlorhexidine gluconate resistance.
@@Lee-fs1rg rather than it being right or wrong, is more that I added that last bit as a tangential thought focused specifically on what was said about resistances to the usage of antibiotics, and why I ignored other substances; I have now separated that statement for clarity's sake
but on that topic, lemme elaborate further: the thought was more in the line that it normally shouldn't matter, to dentists, whether they form resistance to antibiotics or bactericides, since we don't use said substances to treat caries, we remove them mechanically
but you are right that it should be worrying once we think about pulp necrosis and dentoalveolar abscess, although S.mutans isn't normally found on those conditions either, but it is still a risk, yes
Chat gpt?? Is that you??
I'm a bit sad that the question shown in the thumbnail "did they brush" was not actually answered in this video
I would not be surprised if SciShow has done an episode on the history of toothbrushes before.
That makes me sad, too. (Truthfully, it makes me more annoyed than sad, but I felt I should at least TRY not to sound so rude, lol.)
iirc, special sticks for cleaning the teeth were popular for a long stretch of history in certain parts of the middle east (aka 'the moors' as they were called at the time). besides that, prehistoric peoples also ate a lot more tough to chew food that may have helped keep their teeth clean. that's all i remember, apologies for any inaccuracies
Ancient people used twigs from antibacterial plants to chew on and scrape plaque off their teeth, and countless ppl around the world still do this today. ancient people also used mint leaves, charcoal, chalk, rock salt etc to freshen breath, and used sinew and bone as floss picks
Shameful oversight. I , too, experienced extreme disappointment at this.
Nah, the real crime, is we only have two sets of teeth. GMO me baby, give me them shark-style tooth conveyer!
That would be kinda nice...
That's the idea, being able to produce whole teeth from stem cells to replace your old teeth... It is still too far away from us
I wonder if we’ll eventually evolve to lose our baby teeth later.
There’s already some variation-it’s not that rare for people to be in high school when they lose their last baby tooth.
@@EnigmaticLucas that could be more related with lack of space rather than evolution since there are some kids that are already changing their first baby teeth before 6 years
@@EnigmaticLucasevolution doesn't just happen. It's based on cause and effect - natural selection. We'd need lower reproductive fitness (including dying before reproducing) from a lack of teeth to start that process of evolution.
(slams gameshow buzzer) cavities first appeared on scale at the dawn of agriculture as our teeth were less adapted to the amount carbohydrate in our diets. Time to see if that book I read years ago was accurate.
We did eat a lot of carbohydrates and fibre before the dawn of agriculture. It’s just cooking starchy foods and eating new foods. That probably kicked it off.
@@marley7659 Exactly what carbohydrates were growing during an Ice Age? We certainly weren't seeking out grass seeds to eat before agricultural practices began. They wouldn't have been worth the energy expended to gather enough.
@@OldRoadFarm-ck3mjObviously we were eating grains before agriculture or we wouldn’t have domesticated grains to the point that we were farming them.
Mostly has to do with your type of Insurance coverage.
Insurance will pay for treating cavities, but it can't do anything to prevent them. If someone is eating lots of carbs and candy they'll probably get cavities, no matter what kind of dental insurance you have.
@@HappilyCarnivore If you have better insurance, dentist is more apt to find them. Did you actually think you were the smartest person to watch this channel?
Do you know the difference between treatment and prevention? It doesn't seem so. I'll just let myself out.
@@HappilyCarnivore I'm sure you got all your boosters.
@strictlyeducationalmagick some people just don't really get them
Ancient people had a good strategy of fighting cavities by not living long enough to get them
not true many older skulls still have no cavities because they ate only ancestral food meat and carnivore
My family has what's been called mulberry teeth. The ridges in our molars have tiny ridges that are almost impossible to keep free of food debris. Almost everyone has had horrible cavities shortly after our adult teeth emerge.
I have really good dental genetics, cuz when I was growing up I remember eating lots of sugars and sweets even till now I still do, despite not even having bad dental hygiene but even as that I still ain't got a single scratch on my teeth
Adding to the conversation around teeth health and genetics:
There is also a group of genetic connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos-Syndrome and they found a new subtype (type VIII periodontitis type) a few years ago solely based on a whole family’s bad teeth history. Their gums were extremely affected and they lost ALL teeth by the age of 40.
I have a different genetic connective tissue disorder in the COL2A1 gene (not yet classified) but they tested me for that one above too because my teeth are SO bad. My autoimmune disorder and the medications play a role too. I‘m 40 now and currently in the process for dentures.
I just four cavities filled, a root canal and there's three more cavities in my teeth. I hate my teeth 😭😭
I told my dentist that if I were to invent a new language, the word for tooth would be the same as the word for pain. I’ve had 9 root canals and would likely be dead if it weren’t for modern dentistry.😮
I feel yah. I avoid sugar like the plague and still get cavities.. brush 4 times a day. It's unfair
@@nickvarley8365 you might have weak enamel or low saliva amount, or your saliva is too acidic
Same here. Lots of cavities. I brush twice, floss and use mouthwash every day. I got 7 cavities filled a couple of months ago since then I floss 1 extra time a day and use interdental brushes too and also changed to an electric brush. I'm sick of this. When my dentist told me how many bad teeth I had I was shocked. I felt so powerless and my dentist started lecturing me about dental hygiene.... If I add up I spend half an hour every day just working on my teeth.
I noticed some bad behaviours though. For example I used to brush immediately after having a meal. Turns out you have to wait 30-60 minutes after eating. Also I'm trying to limit sugar intake. I used to drink liters of tea throughout the entire day. Now I only drink sugary drinks with my food so it's close to brushing time.
I hope the decay stops here. I don't want to lose teeth by the time I'm 40...
I've had two root canals and both failed. I decided to have the molars extracted and haven't replaced them but it's not affected me. Sick of the endless costs and problems
Mouth hygiene, super important. Also weirdly easy to do as maintenance.
Weirdly easy to do? Are your teeth very far apart then?
I think it's also important to keep in mind some other factors, being our life expectancy and frequency of eating. Back in the day we usually just died earlier, making teeth problems less of a concern and if you just don't eat every day, which wasn't weird back in the day you also leave a lot less nutrients for the bacteria to
That's not really true about "dying" earlier, the very high infant death rate really lowered the overall average lifespan of people as even seen today in certain countries. Once you make it *past* a certain age threshold you can live quite long as long no predator gets you or something else. Just because you get an infection doesn't mean you'll drop dead the day after that's not how the real world works even without proper care, animals(and humans) can be extremely resilient.
@@huldu People still died earlier, even those who survived to age 15. In some populations those survived people lived to 50 + something on average, in many other populations its 40 + something.
@@huldu That's not really true. You may remember such pesky things as diseases, accidents, and war. You can read pre-modern records and grave stones. They were still dying earlier as adults.
@@Lolibeth What I meant was that we don't just drop dead because we hit the age of 30-40 even in our past. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of people reaching the age of 60 or 70 maybe even older. Some people don't get health problems compared to others. The difference today is that we can treat many issues that were hard if not impossible to deal with in the past. But that implies that everyone is born with defects that will pop up at some point in life or run into unavoidable problems, just like today. You could drive to work and end up in a fatal car accident.
My point is that some people are incredibly sturdy and can live very long even without medicine.
@@huldu Sure, some people reached 70-80, but it was less common, especially if you were not privileged.
We're the pugs of the homosapien world
I have never been so accurately insulted in my life :/
best description ever
Fascinating video to watch while munching on a sweet frozen ice cream bar. But yeah, the most important part of tooth health that we have control over is keeping the "scuzzies" & plaque buildup off your teeth. I love that we have modern dessert apples because eating them makes my teeth feel so scrubbed and clean, haha
A decade or more ago, I heard of this mutated version of streptococcus mutans that didn't produce lactic acid, and it was to be added to some candies that would replace the wild type in peoples mouths and stop cavities. I haven't heard of them since. What happened?
Unfortunately it sounded good but it didn't work. Altering a fully formed microbiome is hard. Imagine a glass full of marbles [bacteria] if you try to pour more marbles on top they fall off. Some new strategies currently focus on first stressing the microbiome with cleaning and perhaps antimicrobials and only then adding prebiotics or probiotics
In a scishow tangent episode, Stefan said that he only brushes his teeth once a day. Was it before bedtime? I remember that coz the gang was flabbergasted, kinda'. 😂
I was a dental assistant and the dentist I worked for said he would prefer patients to floss once and brush once per day over brushing twice and never flossing. Flossing and rinsing with fluoride mouth wash once a day and brushing about 12 hours later is fine for most people, doesn't matter which is morning or night. If you tend to get cavities on the chewing surface aka occlusal surface of your teeth, then you should brush twice AND floss once.
I brush my teeth once per day when on good behaviour, and once per week when not. It only takes 1 week of daily brushing to then come to the dentist and they will say I have good hygiene (and no cavities of course for years or else I'd be probably brushing more)
I do the same thing. I don't have enough spoons to do it in the morning as well 😓
Yeah, if you only have the mental energy (aka “spoons”) to brush once a day, it’s better to brush before bed. That way, you’re not leaving all that plaque and food debris sitting on your enamel all night. An alcohol-free mouthwash also helps, not just by killing bacteria and providing fluoride, but also by promoting salivation (saliva has enzymes that can inhibit bacterial growth), whereas alcoholic mouthwash tends to dry the mouth and allow more bacterial growth.
I've brushed once a day in the morning for over a decade and haven't gotten any cavities. I get my teeth cleaned twice a year and get the fluoride treatments when I do. My dentist said it's preferable to brush at night instead of in the morning, but I feel I need to brush after I shower which is usually in the morning. I floss once every week or two. I don't drink anything but water and occasionally milk. I don't even many sugary or acidic foods.
Interesting fact, there people who successfully keep their teeth clean by brushing their teeth with chewing twigs. They'll break a twig off a tree with antibacterial properties, such as Neem, or with saponins. You chew the end until the fibres form bristles and you use it to brush. The ones with saponins get some foam going. Doesn't taste great apparently but they're used to it and it works. Evidence of chewstick use goes as far back as the ancient world, thousands of years ago in places like India, China and Egypt
Don't forget Weston Price's research on the diets of peoples who had very few cavities.
I've found that a lot of tooth health, also depends on your electrolyte intake. Not talking about the salty sugary colored water that's sold at stores. I'm talking about the minerals which provide building blocks for good health.
Calcium
Chloride
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Potassium
Sodium
Sodium Chloride is known as table salt and carries both items, Potassium is found in jacketed potatoes and bananas, Calcium is found in cow milk, but also spinach, tofu*, and yogurt, pumpkin seeds for Magnesium and Phosphorus, Phosphorus also is found in tofu, milk, and pumpkin seeds in high doses.
If you go to the WebMD article called "foods high in electrolytes", you can see a short list of foods that are easy to get each of these elements which are good for keeping those teeth solid and your gums from wanting to yeet your teeth.
Just remember that washing all this down with water will allow you to flush out excess amounts and prevent kidney stones from forming. Of course, removing highly flavored items from your diet will allow you to stomach water, if you can't seem to want to drink it.
67 year male, 10 year ago I changed from a healthy(?) plant based diet, with very little junk food to a ketogenic diet, I have not had any dental issues in that time. From age 10 to 57 I estimate I had over 30 fillings, some molars have been retreated 3 or more times. I still get my teeth checked/cleaned at the dentist twice a year as I have a mouthful of old fillings. The dentist asked what I did after a few visits with no new dental cavities, I said I changed my diet to one low is sugar and high in fat soluble vitamins, she was not interested.
She was probably not interested because you finally did what they told you for decades that you should watch out for sugar in products. And all sugar we usually consume is "plant based" so you switching to plant based diet has nothing to do with your sugar intake, same with the fat soluble vitamins. A basic mouth hygiene and low sugar consumption is magical in reducing your risk of cavities.
Dunno when dentist started telling their patients to reduce sugar, but I know this phrase since I was a small kid. I'm 33 and have yet to develop any kind of dental issues. But I reduced my sugar consumption to a very low level since I was a teenager and consume most sugar usually only in form of starch-based products or fruits. And I'm on a omnivorous diet.
Genetics and mouth microbiome have the biggest effect. Obviously if you don't have processed sugar in your mouth, there's nothing for the bacteria to eat and you stop getting cavities. But I eat tons of candy, soda, etc. and have never had a cavity.
I don't floss, brush but not extremely thoroughly, and went almost 10 years without a dental visit at one point. Started going every 6 months a few years ago and my dentist always comments that I have amazing teeth. She doesn't believe that I literally eat a whole bag of candy most days on top of two or three sodas.
@@unwaveringflame2482 wow you have great genetics, good for you. Hope things hold out. Consider using a coconut oil rinse, I do it and have heard it's very helpful with keeping a good bacterial balance in the mouth.
Wow great job Tony. It's too bad she wasn't interested. I think diet can have a very significant effect on oral health. Our oral bacteria matters.
I would recommend to anyone looking to increase their oral health, to use a coconut oil swish before or after brushing, or both, and consider using a good oral probiotic.
Also just supplementing with high mineral-dense foods or a good mineral supplement can help. Increasing vitamin D dosage helps our bones, tissues, and teeth also.
my teeth are crowded, and my gums are extremely pathetic from a genetic condition that makes all my surface tissue super easily injured, but somehow ive never had a cavity, or even gingivitis- i sure have a ton of nightmares about it though
We started getting cavities when farming took place and things like maize/corn and other sugars were in our diet more often.
I had 22 of mine pulled because of an infection as a complication from amelogenesis imperfecta.
Teeth are dumb. Human teeth especially.
Ouch. I'm sorry to hear that. ❤
Dang, you've got it even worst than I did.... I was born with enamel hypoplasia (not enough of it) and my teeth were rotting by the time I hit my 20s. I've had 18 root canals and 22 crowns.
@@katarh I had a friend with something similar, at 15 he only had 3-4 teeth left. Safe to say he was looking forward to turning 25 so they could drill in new teeth for him.
@@Raua12did they at least give him dentures or something in the mean time?
Half my teeth are gone, but no genetic issues. Doctors of Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 1980s set me on the path. Now having tmj disorder and neuralgia from it (constant pain), and I can not have implants for this reason. Flippers only.
I brush twice and floss once, and properly. Use salt water rinse. Even have and use water pick.
Bad dice roll on birth time and place. Doctors drilled my teeth into Swiss cheese and then pulled them. No proactive care whatsoever. Lost 7 teeth by the time I got out of teens.
Looking good Stefan!
I think that we would've eventually became resistant or even immune to the acids produced by those bacteria, as having healthy teeth is a big advantage. The bacteria also would have no reason to evolve "different acid" to counter that, as the bacteria does not specifically want our teeth to be destroyed.
I don’t think that’s how the chemistry of tooth enamel vs. acid works. *Any* acid can damage your teeth, because teeth are made out of a material that is damaged by acid. It’s like how leaving an egg in vinegar will strip away the calcified part of the shell.
The bacteria are surviving off of food particles in our mouth and the byproducts or waste of the bacteria are what damages our teeth. What food particles are present, lots of meat and naturally low sugar foods like vegetables give the bacteria less to live off of. Naturally high sugar foods like fruit or bread made with milled grains and sweetened with honey (before refined white sugar became available), provide more food for bacteria and allow them to reproduce faster. Maybe the food source of the bacteria affects their byproducts making them more acidic? Or because there are more bacterial species than just S. mutans that cause cavities, maybe some of those only became a problem after agriculture took over?
As long as people's teeth weren't so bad that they died before they could have children, their children could inherit cavity prone teeth and pass them on down the generations. When you're in a small population with 5 male and 5 female possible romantic partners and 7 or 8 of them have or will get tooth decay, it's unlikely that only the people with the best teeth are going to reproduce.
Acid isn't a disease, it chemically messes with molecule bonds... unless we can get titanium teeth somehow, there's no resisting or immunizing against the process.
Regrowing them would've been an improvement but imagine having that kind of tooth ache semi-regularly.
Remember, you only need to live long enough to reproduce. Healthy teeth don't really matter.
@@filonin2 This. In addition, humans are much more intelligent and social species, so they could compensate the missing teeth with tools and other people's help. Most other animals cannot.
The most important thing is sugar frequency and not the amount. With frequency - more often acid will be around teeth and saliva won't have enough time to rinse it away (remineralize enamel). Additionally frequent acid "rinse" will alter oral microbiome and increase the amount of "cariogenic" bacteria and kill "healthy" bacteria. Furthermore Strep. Mutans is NOT the only bacteria causing caries, and regarding acid there are bacteria that produce it more. Cavities are not caused by a single microorganism.
sincerely a person doing PhD in oral microbiology
Best opening line ever.
I really think genetics plays in to teeth a lot. Growing up i honestly just didnt brush my teeth. My parents never made sure i did so i didn't. You know many cavities ive had in my entire life? 2. One was in a baby tooth, and the other was barely a cavity, one of the smallest my dentists had ever seen. I didn't eat a different diet than most if anything i ate more junk food than others. I know people whos religiously brushed their teeth and still have a problem with cavities. But one thing i did have as a kid was reoccuring strep in 2nd-3rd grade, along with so many other random sicknesses - i missed SO much school. Had strep 6 times in a row in one year and then i was never sick again until college, when, you guessed it, i got strep TWICE in a row within 3 months. Im still not the best at brushing but to this day i havent had a cavity since mid high school. Maybe having super crowded (but straight, only needed a palate expander as a kid) teeth plays a factor. I dont eat a ton a sweets, and not a lot of citrus things either. Maybe i have a diet that is less likely to develop cavities. Who knows. Or maybe i just have a super strong immune system given im never sick, and so i fight off the bacteria easily. Maybe i drink a lot of water and that helps. Theres so many factors, but in my family it was never common for people to have cavities that i know of. Only one person had dentures but the rest of them in their old age have all their teeth. My family is very irish btw, which i wouldnt think has anything to do with having good teeth genes. But thought id throw that out there.
I've heard that cavities might also be contagious. In some people the particular strains of cavity causing bacteria might be absent or suppressed.
Great video
I think making a video about cavities without mentioning that the bacteria that cause them are infectious borders on criminally negligent. Not that I would expect too many people to change their behavior based on a TH-cam video, but I think getting the knowledge out there is important. So many families treat drinking after each other like a bonding experience.
Fluoride and dental hygiene are killing off cavities. People like me who grew up in the pre-fluoride days had 9 fillings on average at age 20. Today it's less than one.
"Handfuls of candies, in my jammies." Bah, hah, hah! Good one!
Can you do a video on how some of the bacteria that cause excessive cavities are contagious so if you have particularly bad teeth it might be a good idea to avoid sharing silverware and beverages with your kids, and even to avoid kissing them on the mouth? My dentist tells me that just 20 or 30% of people have 80% of cavities because of whatever bacteria that is. She didn't specify whether that bacteria was S. Mutans.
In Strange Planet, they are called "mouthstones." 😁
When I had bad teeth eating sugary stuff would make my teeth hurt, but eating fruit was fine. Drinking soda was the worst. Seems like carbonation plus sugar are very bad, probably because carbonation makes soda acidic.
When will we cure blindness caused by retinol vein occlusion
See the Weston A Price foundation for the answer.
How long between sun exposures to reset risk of burn to zero?
I've never had a cavity and I just turned 35. I really don't think it has much to do with what you eat and how much you brush or floss. I have always eaten a ton of sugar and was really bad about brushing when I was a kid. My dad has never had a cavity either. It's mostly genetic. Oh, and my teeth are pretty crooked, even after braces when I was a teen. On the flip side, my gums are terrible. If I don't floss every day, I get bad pockets in my gums. So I may some day lose all my teeth without ever having a cavity! 😢
Caries can be contagious, so you might be lucky to not be infected with a really bad strain of bacteria and this might appear genetics from the first glance.
I've been to Grottes des Pigeons before! Or its actual name, Taforalt.
Cool new background :0
Another major contributing factor (particularly in more primitive populations) is the use of teeth as tools - an interesting topic on its own!
People used various methods to clean their teeth. Like ash as tooth paste.
Oh yummmmm let me raid the fridge once again for that bowl of icecream.
It drives me crazy that my husband only cleans his teeth once a day. Nothing else. And doesn't have a single filling. And he is a high sugar and refined carb eater. I started getting cavaties from about 8 years old, with a good diet and dental hygiene, and today most of of my teeth are crowns from being filled so many times.
The difference? He grew up on a farm in the middie of nowhere with bore hole water with high levels of natural fluoride. It's the same with most of the communities in the area, including tribal ones, who have no access to dental professionals.
I think alkaline water stopped my cavities over the past 2 years (
Wait I thought streptococcus caused strep throat. What is the link here? Different bacteria from the same family?
My mom has naturally highly acidic saliva and she got periodontal disease even though she did everything she's supposed to. 😅
Weston A Price research on this is very interesting!
So... Did they brush?
Also we love longer than most animals. But like, even dogs and cats get gum diseases and cavities.
37 and no cavities yet! 🤞Let's go genetics!
I assume that Eskimo and other peoples that live in extremely frigid areas had virtually no tooth decay since their diets were essentially animal-based, with a minuscule amount of vegetation in the summer periods.
"Eskimo" has been out of use since the 1980's and is considered a pejorative term, like calling Asians "yellow."
@@filonin2 Well, it's not at all comparable since some Alaskan tribes will accept Eskimo or Inuit to refer to themselves and there's historical precedent. "Eskimo" is a Cree word originally, so that's where the _apparent_ rejection comes from since it is not a way they refer to themselves. In any case, it's hardly insulting or grossly negative, it's just a name from another culture.
Small note at 4:43, 'Example of Homo Sapien' - it's Homo sapiens, not Homo sapien, as sapiens is already singular in Latin
I’ve never had a cavity and I’m 27. I’ve never had any dental problem actually except bottom wisdom teeth removal. But I definitely eat a lot of sugar lol… genetics on the microlevel scale for sure. There’s still time for me to get one as I get older of course but my mom is 58 and has never had a dental problem. I’m glad I didn’t because I was neglected as a child and never would’ve gotten dental care, it could’ve been terrible. I did not visit a dentist once until I was 22. They couldn’t believe my teeth were fine.. I couldn’t either 😂
When we included complex carbohydrates as a large part of our diet.
I missed it. When did we start brushing? Timestamp please?
Is this a click bait? I knew about cavities I am interested in brushing!
OMG now I can die, I can finally associate a face to that voice!!
You failed to mention that toothpaste have abrasive agent and some people brush their teeth very vigorously that it does more damage than good, leading to cavities.
Can't believe you didn't bring up xylitol.
Also, maybe our ancestors where chewing some plants, that have anti-bacterial substances in it ...
I’m thinking that with CRSPR a dentist could culture the particular S. mutans strain from a patient’s mouth, edit the genome of those bacteria to prevent them from forming the biofilm that causes cavities, or perhaps even stop the acid production, and, after editing, sterilize the patient’s mouth and reintroduce the modified bacteria back into the patient. Since those particular bacteria are already optimized for the microbiome of the patient’s mouth, they should grow preferential to and “wild” S. mutans, so fairly promptly the patient will have a population of “safe” S. mutans established that will keep others from colonizing and then damaging tooth enamel.
I know essentially nothing about biology, dentistry, or CRISPR, so this is probably a sci-fi fantasy, but I figured I would share the idea in case it sparked an idea for someone who knows more,
We really started having it when we started really having large amounts of sweets, candy, etc are the reason we have them I try to keep away from these for a reason because it could cause thm but its mostly becauze im trying prevent weight gain
I hate my teeth and fear the dentist (pain in both the mouth and financial!).
I wish I could save enough money just to be done with them and get a set of dentures made!
But I'm too poor to afford health insurance let alone the cost of getting dentistry done. 😢
one of my favourite cursed facts is the fact that cavities are contagious.
cavities are caused by baceteria in your moutch chewing away at various sugars, right? but you're not born with those bacteria - you probably got them from your sibling or parents as an infant. Some people are lucky enough to not have this bacteria, and do not get cavities, regardless of how unhealthy their teeth are.
Just one word - floss. I stopped getting cavities when I started doing so - as much as I can, also using those tooth pickers.
My kid's feed giraffes the other day. Their teeth were nasty. They were domestic however.
GI problems seem to be very common. Also a general malaise that might be do to being overwhelmed with stimulation.
Well, we named a province in the Philippines, after that.... In singular form...
If you double tap rewind really fast at the start of the video he says "TEETH" really fast. 😁
90+ % of humans? What? Really? Then at 60 years old now I feel super fortunate to be in that 9% who have never had a cavity. No clue how that happened because I would consider myself only a mildly attentive brusher. I’m guessing diet and genetics must have a large roll in this, but both my parents and siblings have cavities.
How long we live is a major factor as well
Even Red Pandas- who love fruit- are vulnerable to cavities :(
People get so mad when we explain that bagels and refined carbs weren't on the menu thousands of years ago.
One aspect I see about teeth ancient vs modern is the alignment of teeth. Have you guys found stuff about it?
im curious about this too
They have covered this before. Without the need to chew and grind harder foods our jaws have shortened. Soft cooked foods not only give the bacteria more to snack on it reduces the need for strong jaw muscles and the bone structure to support them.
In terms of human evolution, this 'crooked teeth' causation is too short-term to be the reason of having changes in our genetics. So this pandemic of “jaws becoming smaller” is more probable of environmental and lifestyle changes and causes. Crooked teeth started for full in the population after the industrial revolution (a timespan of just 200 years. Not near enough time for evolution to happen for the human species). The healthcare system should provide and promote good lifestyle for our jaws to grow properly, just like how exercising, sleeping enough, eating healthy etc. is common advice. I.e suggesting to breathe through nose, have correct tongue posture, eat harder foods, having good body posture, etc.
While we ate raw or close to raw meat and vegetables and non processed foods I think this was a much smaller scale problem...
George Washington had wooden teeth, so why do I have to brush my teeth every single day? :3
When asked, 4 out of 5 dentists disagree that it's small price to pay to be able to eat handfuls of candy in your jammies. However, after going over the books and meeting up with friends at the pub, 4 out of 5 dentists agree that it's small price to pay to be able to eat handfuls of candy in your jammies.😁
Would it be possible to breed a bacterium that doesn't cause acidification and replaces the current bacteria in our mouths?
I always wondered why I never see this stuff talked about like- don't we have the tools to totally eliminate and replace these kinds of bacteria?
I believe there was a sterilization process in the late 1900s, that killed the tooth-rotters, but you could not kiss anyone and it never caught on. Not sure why.
(Cannot find anything on it with an internet search - rats!)
When did people stop getting a 3rd set of teeth?
(the pill that is currently under testing in japan to regrow a missing tooth (or teeth) works through some gene (for a 3rd set) that is deactivated in humans, now.
Maybe when birds stopped growing them outright. 🤔😅
While that is exciting, in theory, it is a developing technology. In the test video it briefly showed what appeared to be a rat growing a human tooth where teeth aren't supposed to grow.
2:40 graph must be wrong. There are archaeological studies that shows Indian were farming and building chariots long ago compared to any other civilisations
No, that was in the middle east. India would have been soon after that, as the diagram shows
@@elijahtommy777 there are no archeological evidence to support that
0:47 Pugs have entered the chat.
Not a species.
@@4124V4TA-SNPCA-x you don't say?
Buy Thompsons teeth.... the only teeth strong enough to eat other teeth.
Their a buncha muncha cruncha fun!
I'm pretty sure besides candy, Chernobyl had something to do with my bad teeth, I wasn't that far from the site.
Is it just me, or does it look like the example shown at 3:05 has a manufactured maxila and mandible (upper and lower teeth and associated skull pieces) so could not be used as an example for tooth quality
Because we're mostly evolved as carnivores.
Personally I am glad that there is an end in sight for at least to some of our dental troubles. What with teeth regrowing medicine entering human trials
Before industrialization humans had great teeth. Harder foods matter too. Read Jaws, great book
Handful of candies is only the first part of the price... diet is a major risk factor for all sorts of diseases. They just take longer to show up. Cavities and energy dips happen early. Eventually you see plaques in the blood vessels and inflammation of the blood and organs... from there it's heart attacks, strokes and a host of life threatening conditions. Cavities can be an early sign of a way of eating which has serious consequences when continued over a long time.
Good example at 4:44 but he is a Homo sapiens. A single human is still a Homo sapiens; you don't singularize "sapiens" for an individual. Anyway, still a good one!
We really need CRISPR or something to fix our teeth to be better
Flossing my teeth with toothpaste cause of this vid
That sounds hard. I usually use dental floss. 😛
@@nBasedAce nice one