Did people die in the old days, simple because their teeth fell out?
Any teeth stories out there?
People have been making stews, soups and porridges for a very, very long time; it would probably be very difficult to find a culture in which the loss of one’s teeth meant inevitable starvation. Of course, by the time you’ve lost all your teeth, there are likely other things wrong with you, and so death may not be all that far off. But still.
People have also been making dentures for a long time. I read a book in which a Native American woman in the 1600’s used a mortar and pestle she called her “teeth” to grind up food so she could eat it, since she’d lost her real ones.
A simple solution is to have a younger family member chew your food for you. (Of course, this may cause their teeth to wear down even faster).
You don’t have to be that old - not even 30 - to lose all of your teeth if you have bad oral hygiene and eating habits, and even when average life expectancies were much lower than today, that was pretty meaningless if you survived past childhood (if you have two people, one who lives to be 70 and the other dies in infancy, the average life expectancy is 35, but the first person obviously lived to be pretty old).
All three of the grandparents I knew were toothless all my life- two of them had dentures. The other one did not. She got by gumming everything. She ate burgers, pasta, pies, and well-cooked vegetables. She lived to 96.
This would explain all of the dead babies.
My dad has no teeth or dentures. That’s the least of his problems.
Thanks for the responses.
Modern foods are rather soft, aren’t they? Perhaps soft enough so that teeth aren’t necessary.
What about ancient foods? Hard grains, tough meat. I have to think that teeth do make a big difference in survival in an evolutionary sense.
You can digest most stuff without chewing. You may not get all the nutrients out, and end up with secondary problems, but you’d have to be close to starvation anyway for lack of teeth to send you over the edge. Hard grains and tough meat can be smashed with a rock. Marrow can be sucked out of bones that have to be broken anyway. Blood is full of nutrients. Teeth are useful, but humans can get by without them. Hereditary toothlessness would be an evolutionary disadvantage which is obvious from it’s lack of prevalence outside of WV. But the few random individuals who lose their teeth and then die before ensuring the continuation of their genetic line aren’t going to change things noticeably.
Plenty of skeletons of prehistoric humans have been found in which you can tell, because the tooth sockets have grown full of bone, that the person lived for a long time after losing all their teeth. The most popular theory about neolithic cultures is that other people chewed the food for them.
On a more modern note, your grandmother learned to severely overcook vegetables because so many people had bad teeth back in the day. If you look at 18th and 19th century cookbooks quite a lot of the vegetables and fruits are boiled to death then strained, that is, made into baby food–for teethless people to eat. I’m sure that pates and terrines were popular partly for the same reason.
My 50-year-old brother had all his teeth yanked and his jaw rebuilt almost two years ago. He hopes that someday his jaw will be strong enough for dentures or implants. Until then, he is grinding up his food or eating soft things. It seems like kind of an unpleasant way to go through life, but he has actually been putting some weight back on, so he is apparently getting enough calories.
In case you are wondering – mouth cancer. And, yes, he did resume smoking after his surgery.
In an evolutionary sense? Not unless toothlessness were an inheritable trait, and toothless people didn’t procreate.
My 71-year-old husband had all of this teeth pulled about 12 years ago because chemo and radiation had caused a lot of breakage. He’s tried dentures – twice – but just can’t adjust to them. In the meantime, he eats just about anything he wants except for nuts. So yes, it’s definitely possible to live without teeth.
I have dentures and i have found certain foods I can eat and some I can’t. I do better if I leave the lower denture out and rely on upper teeth and lower gums. I’ve had full dentures for a little over a year and I’m 72, if that matters.
My grandfather was toothless for as long as I could remember. He had dentures, but only wore them for pictures.
He ate anything and everything, except corn on the cob, that he had to cut the nibblets off the cob. We had steak about twice a month and he did just fine with it.
I’m a dentist and the youngest person I’ve made dentures for was 23. Had a buddy who did so for an 18 year old. Due to drugs in both cases. Seen lots of folks do just fine without teeth. Just cut your food fairly small gum it a bit to get it moist, swallow.
According to both my parents my grandmother had her last tooth yanked (barroom divorce style) in 1938. I was born in '60 and spent a lot of time in the company of “Ma” (as she was referred to by everybody) and saw her eat anything from popcorn to ham and even gum apart a freaking jawbreaker much, MUCH earlier than it should have been. She never, ever had dentures fitted, and always was morbidly obese due to her diet.
From what I observed, her gums may have been sharper than most other peoples actual teeth!!! And she died at the age of 97.
Impressive, but I, myself, value my chompers, BTW!
This(only in third person) is the nutritional risk assessment on Medicare forms for home health assessments. It, or one like it, is used in many doctor’s offices, hospitals and long term care facilities. It’s a list of statements with points assigned. The more points, the higher your risk of medical issues from poor nutrition/malnutrition.
“…tooth or mouth problems that make it hard…to eat,” gets you 2 points. On it’s own, that’s not predictive of nutritional problems, but just one other risk factor, even the mildest ones, and you’re into Moderate Risk territory. More than one, or the most severe one (not always having enough money for food) and you’re into High Risk, and I’m supposed to call a Nutritionist for a consult.
So yes, having no teeth is worrisome, and often requires intervention to prevent or treat health problems as a result.
Of course…this is on Medicare forms; it’s a problem recognized by Medicare…but they don’t cover dental care or dentures. :smack: But that’s another rant for another day.