Comment by cluckindan
3 months ago
So, chewing on beetle exoskeletons would repair teeth enamel? Wonder if there is archaeological evidence of humans doing that. Edit: there seems to be plenty of evidence of eating insects but any dental association is probably incidental (pun not intended). Maybe we just haven’t been looking into the enamel for these structures.
Exoskeletons are usually made of chitin and not keratin. But maybe it works the same way
Insects are made of chitin, as far as I know.
You could chew on your fingernails...
Did past humans have the dental problems we have? I imagine a lot of our problems are caused by our diet and access to sugar.
Starchy food led to rotten teeth in ancient hunter-gatherers:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2014-01-07-starchy-food-led-rotten...
But I think the more common prehistoric tooth problem was severe wear from using the teeth to process things like fibers and hides.
Yes, some studies and observations suggest that pre-contact Aboriginal Australians had generally good oral health with low rates of tooth decay and periodontal disease.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jphd.12570
It's not just sugar, starchy foods like bread, potatoes start breaking down quickly right in the mouth into simple sugars, it's enough that white bread has a higher glycemic index than actual sugar :)
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Never in History have humans had as good teeth as they do today. Also consider that until we had vaccines and antibiotics in the early 20th century, the average lifespan was very short.
average, yes, but living to 70 was reasonably common if you made it past childhood.
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Absolutely false.
Check out Nutrition and physical degeneration book by Weston Price.
All you need to do is to look at the pictures in the book, you don't even need to read it.
Sure. We can also treat cancer better than ever before, but it would still be interesting to know where the rise in cancer cases came from, even if we can patch around the problem and are better off overall. Same for dental health: my understanding is also that people didn't used to need toothpaste to enjoy a comparable dental health
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> Never in History have humans had as good teeth as they do today.
This is absolutely untrue. What is your reference?
Never in history have so many people had such "good" looking teeth, but they involve an enormous amount of prosthesis and amalgam. Veneers aren't good teeth, they're intentionally destroyed teeth used to root false teeth.
And brushing, although it keeps teeth clean and not stinky, deepens the gum pockets around teeth that host the microorganisms that will eventually uproot them.
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Chewing plant twigs to clean teeth is an ancient way of tooth cleaning in many cultures[1]. I wonder if the Lignin or Suberin in plants acts the same was as Keratin in this study.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teeth-cleaning_twig
Just make sure to identify the plant first, and ensure it is suited for that (unlike the poison oak twig which the naïve city kid picked on one training deployment when trying to impress the country rubes with his knowledge of woodcraft --- fortunately a medic was able to perform a tracheotomy when the allergic reaction swelled his windpipe shut).
My grandmother was hospitalized, as a child, after she ate a hotdog she roasted on a poison oak stem.
Yes! I've seen people with some very striking white teeth in India which is a place where people often do have horrible teeth (often from betel nut use). So the twig users sometimes really stand out. The Wikipedia article has a good point about frequent use though - some people clean their teeth with these twigs almost like a nervous habit and are very intense about it.
What the article doesn't mention is the salivation that Neem twigs cause! Neem trees also produce a biocide called azadirachtin and although the concentration is low in twigs maybe it helps clean the teeth when used a lot?
I used a Neem based shampoo for a short period, but my wife complained that it had an atrocious smell. Guess Neem based oral hygiene would take this to the next level...
But why not chew on hair directly?
Because you'll get a bezoar (hairball).
Not if you drink coca cola, which is even listed in medical books as a way to disolve it. You might get IR though :)
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Which you then spit out like chewed up gum.
no one said to swallow it silly!
I can see flossing with it, but chewing?
Beetle exoskeletons are not made of keratin. Try eating non-defeathered poultry.
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There are lots of activities wherein a hair, pubic or otherwise, might end up in a person's mouth.
Name two.
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