When you look at an ancient human skull, you will often notice that its teeth are usually quite straight. Without braces, fluoride toothpaste, or wisdom tooth extraction, most prehistoric humans had the teeth of a Hollywood actor. So how did they achieve this?
One of the biggest factors behind this is the shrinking of the human jaw over time, and the resulting clenching of the teeth.
In the past few centuries, impacted wisdom teeth have become incredibly common. The American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons states that 90 percent of people have at least one impacted wisdom tooth, which often requires surgical extraction.
Impacted wisdom teeth appear to be significantly less common in pre-industrial times, but other dental issues were quite common. However, before the beginning of agriculture, problematic wisdom teeth were more rare.
The straight teeth seen in humans in the past are closely linked to the reduction in the jaws noted in a number of scientific studies.
In 2015, researchers examined 292 human skeletons from 28,000 to 6,000 years ago found in the Levant, Anatolia and Europe. Their findings showed that people living in recent farming communities had smaller (and differently shaped) mandibles compared to earlier hunter-gatherer humans.
According to the researchers, this may reflect a radical change in our diet throughout history. Before the advent of agriculture about 12,000 years ago, humans had a diet consisting of meat and things that were tougher and required more chewing.
After the agricultural revolution, people began to have access to foods that required less jaw strength to chew, such as easy-to-eat vegetables, grain products, and rice. In the modern era, things have gotten significantly more sloppy with the advent of processed and ultra-processed foods that require virtually no significant jaw activity to consume.
The researchers note that the time period is extremely short in terms of evolution, so the change in jaw size is unlikely to be genetic. Instead, they think our tiny jaws are a result of the food we ate as babies.
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