chewing

An interesting article titled “Why We Have So Many Problems with Our Teeth” appeared in Scientific America written by By Peter S. Ungar (paleontologist and dental anthropologist) on April 1, 2020 (322, 4, 44-49). The article discusses how human jaws today are very different than that of our ancestors. In fact today our jaws can be consider underdeveloped due to less chewing that occurs and has kept our teeth from fitting properly into our mouths. The author states ” Nine in 10 people have teeth that are at least slightly misaligned, or maloccluded, and three quarters of us have wisdom teeth that do not have enough room to emerge properly. Simply put, our teeth do not fit in our jaws.” The author says that teeth no longer fit into jaws because human diets have changed over the years to use softer more processed foods … Read more