Crooked teeth: A 12,000 year old problem

By Dr. Maryam Brazdo

Apr 13 2015

Artistic Touch Dentistry offers comprehensive dental care from the first steps in cavity prevention to regular prophylaxis all the way through treatments dealing with periodontal disease and cosmetic dentistry.

Dr. Maryam Brazdo offers several solutions for malaligned teeth to look straighter and to be more functional, but it’s important to keep in mind that crooked teeth haven’t always been a problem for humans. The earliest hunter-gatherers had almost no malocclusion and dental crowding, and the condition first became common among the world’s earliest farmers some 12,000 years ago in Southwest Asia.

By analysing the lower jaws and teeth crown dimensions of 292 archaeological skeletons from the Levant, Anatolia and Europe, from aged 28,000-6,000 years old, an international team of scientists have discovered a clear separation between European hunter-gatherers, Near Eastern/Anatolian semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers and transitional farmers, and European farmers, based on the form and structure of their jawbones.

The link between chewing, diet, and related dental wear patterns is well documented and has been described as a “malady of civilization.” So the next time you’re considering whether to improve upon your overcrowded teeth with a straighter smile, keep in mind that straight teeth were once the norm for homo sapiens. If you have questions about methods to straighten your teeth, contact us today!

Reference:

University College Dublin. (2015, February 4). Malocclusion and dental crowding arose 12,000 years ago with earliest farmers. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 16, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150204144653.htm