# Do whole grains damage your teeth **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2006, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-whole-grains-damage-your-teeth/355042 "2006-05-02T02:26:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 8
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-whole-grains-damage-your-teeth/355042/8 "2006-05-02T19:52:38Z")
[QUOTE=StarvingButStrong] In societies where women (usually) grind grain between two stone surfaces, you end up with a bit of stone grit ‘contamination’ in the result. You’ve got to think that biting down on even a small amount of stone dust will do damage to your teeth as the years go by. [/QUOTE] > [@mks57](#): > > When I took a class in physical anthropology, I examined some skulls of people who had subsisted largely on stone-ground flour. Most of them had moderate to severe wear on their teeth. As I understand, the teeth of ancient Egyptians show the worst of this “grit-wear” because of sand which is not only created when flour is stone-ground, but from tiny particles which blows into food when it’s prepared out in the open or in homes without window screens. You see a lot of wear on the teeth of ancient Native American women, not only from stone-ground grains but from the pratice of chewing hides to help soften them. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-whole-grains-damage-your-teeth/355042)._