Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond.
If I dare say, the teeth that we naturally got, are not just for biting and chewing food - they are not just the first step in the digestion of food, but they are the reason - that average human life span has increased in the 20th century, than it was at any other time period, in human history,- that we need them for getting close to proving the theory of evolution,-that developing countries are sinking their teeth in the world economy,-that all vertebrates share this common link,-that Hyenas are better at what they do than a pride of Lion; what would you say?!
Dental hygiene practices, pioneered by Dr. Hal Harrison Ramsey in 1880, are now household rituals to clean our teeth, use tooth pastes, dental floss, wash teeth after eating etc. The technology that modern dentists used will certainly be magical or out of this world if any of Dr. Ramsey lineage saw it now.
In animal world, oral hygiene is still a no-concept but never the less they are not far behind in realizing the importance of dental evolution and survival, off course not in literal terms. Elephants & related mammals have some teeth outside their mouths used for intemedation & not for chewing food.
All in all-I need to go now-its my bed time and I need to brush my teeth!
chao!
~Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, 1605
We, as you will agree, are obsessed with many unworthy (subjective to the reader) things in life. Some spend their entire life to care for others, some spend their entire fortune to get 4 wheels that they can only enjoy on good roads, which are hard to find here; some get their entire body tattooed & pierced and some get their nose fixed, some get their butt insured for 1 billion$, some get their wrinkles reduced and some get their teeth fixed.
Everyone have their own reasons and explanations and I am not at all, at this point, concerned with all that except my TEETH!
If I dare say, the teeth that we naturally got, are not just for biting and chewing food - they are not just the first step in the digestion of food, but they are the reason - that average human life span has increased in the 20th century, than it was at any other time period, in human history,- that we need them for getting close to proving the theory of evolution,-that developing countries are sinking their teeth in the world economy,-that all vertebrates share this common link,-that Hyenas are better at what they do than a pride of Lion; what would you say?!
Well, technically they are obedient workers, some long, sharp canine teeth to tear up food; some wide, flat molars to grind and mash up food and some, to our surprise also helping us say certain sounds that are important in any language. People have two sets of teeth in their lives, the primary teeth i.e. our milk teeth and the permanent teeth i.e. our secondary 32 teeth, pair of them are supposed to give us wisdom after the age of 20 (?).
As we evolved from the cave dwelling, savannah hunting bipedal ape to the civilized (?), culinary art learning, automotive passaging retro humans, many things changed; and with that certainly our oral hygiene standards. From the studies of human fossils and enamel we now know that average life span of ape humans was around 35-40 years; off course because of many weighting factors. One of the important factors is certainly teeth health.
Emory University anthropologist George Armelagos has published his work in Evolutionary Anthropology stating that ancient human teeth are telling secrets that may relate to modern-day health: Some stressful events that occurred early in development are linked to shorter life spans. The study is based on enamel analysis. Disruptions in the formation of the enamel, which can be caused by disease, poor diet or psychological stress, show up as grooves on the tooth surface, ultimately projecting themselves as "snapshots" of the ancient human health.
Dental hygiene practices, pioneered by Dr. Hal Harrison Ramsey in 1880, are now household rituals to clean our teeth, use tooth pastes, dental floss, wash teeth after eating etc. The technology that modern dentists used will certainly be magical or out of this world if any of Dr. Ramsey lineage saw it now.
W. Shakespeare was right in his 'Much Ado about Nothing' when he said-
"For there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently".
Ultimately all the efforts by all dentists, did lead humans to eat ice cream or chew on delicious meat balls with spaghetti even after the age of 55yrs and restricting infections & applying teeth replacements; resulting in, along with other factors (thanks to Alexander Fleming, John Kellogg & others), increase in average human life span from 35-40 yrs to 67.3 years in last 200 years.
In animal world, oral hygiene is still a no-concept but never the less they are not far behind in realizing the importance of dental evolution and survival, off course not in literal terms. Elephants & related mammals have some teeth outside their mouths used for intemedation & not for chewing food.
Bite strength is of great importance to carnivores, as their jaws must produce forces of sufficient magnitude to kill and consume their prey. Spotted hyenas, well known for crushing and consuming bones, were studied to determine how tooth and jaw growth affect bite strength and feeding behaviour. It’s shown that their teeth are evolved in such a way that they get sharpened with each bite unlike elephants, which cannot help their degenerating teeth and die off for a cheap reason that they cannot chew their food.
On the other extreme where oral hygiene has become a technology and an industry, here are some facts that surprised (?) me- In India, oral care market offers huge potential as penetration and per capita consumption of oral care products is very low. However, rising per capita income and increasing awareness is driving demand of oral care products. The 58,000-tonne tooth-paste industry in India is worth Rs1,000 crore. Around two-thirds of the market is accounted by the standard white tooth-paste and the rest by gel tooth- paste. In the last few years, the industry has grown at the rate of 7-8 percent due to lower excise duties. The rural market is growing by 12 percent per annum. It has the potential to account for two- third share of the total market. In the saturated urban market, the gel segment grew by more than 15 percent annually in the last 8 years and now accounts for one-third of the total tooth-paste market. Now, the overall growth in the tooth-paste industry is around 11 percent, with the rural market estimated to grow by 14 percent per annum. The major players in this segment are Colgate and Hindustan Lever Ltd. Colgate has monopolised the rural market. In urban India, it is facing a tough competition from HLL. This competition is expected to intensify further with Dabur intending to re-launch the Binaca brand.
Still WHO is running Skills for Health program: Skills-based health education including life skills: An important component of a Child-Friendly/Health-Promoting School where they emphasize on oral health & development of 3rd world countries. Other such example is of The World Oral Health Report 2003: continuous improvement of oral health in the 21st century – the approach of the WHO Global Oral Health Programme.
But let us not bother about the economics and politics, the most interesting part now is that a new paper in PLoS Genetics continues the search for predicted dead genes — this time for genes that once made tooth enamel. The evidence they have shown is solving the puzzle of evolution as from other evidence, including fossils and comparative morphology, scientists have confidently predicted that every one of mammalian species descended from ancestors that had enameled teeth.
All in all-I need to go now-its my bed time and I need to brush my teeth!
chao!
