We have evolved for millions of years, if dental plaque or tartar did not have some sort of protective effect I think the body would have developed better protective effects against it. They didn’t have dentists, toothbrushes, floss and 6 month cleanings a thousand years ago.
Our diet was also very different during those millions of years. No refined sugars in caveman days, so cavemen dentists were less well off than modern day counterparts.
Dentist here. Like dofe said, sugar is the problem as far as cavities. Early folks didn’t get any where as near as much as we do but still had things such as fruits and honey. Plaque is the slime on your teeth left over from eating combined with some bacteria. Tarter is mineral build up. The minerals in the saliva seem to help remineralize incipient lesions.(micro cavities) Too much build up leads to periodontal problems. Cavities are generally faster moving then perio and also more painful when big. For folks that didn’t live too long perio problems may have been less of a negative then cavities.
Exactly. Why do you need good teeth if you only need to live until 30 or so?
Here’s a good case: Otzi the Iceman. Lived over 5000 years ago. 45 years old and lots and lots of cavities. Other health problems, too.
This is a classic evolutionary fallacy - that we are somehow “optimized”. We aren’t. We just live well enough to efficiently pass on our genes. That doesn’t mean our individual bodies have to run in a particularly efficient way.
It’s also why chronic cholesterol, high blood pressure, family history of cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other chronic conditions aren’t “problems” in these terms. You don’t need to live too long or too well to pass on your genes.
That has more to do with cavities. Most cavities occur in the crown of the tooth. I wonder if plaque or tarter is the bodys way of putting a barrier up between the teeth and at the base of the teeth to prevent cavities in that area by creating a physical barrier. If the body developed more plaque and tartar in the crown of the tooth maybe we would not get cavities in that area.
Plaque is itself what leads to the cavities. You’re basically positing that if you have enough plaque, it’ll prevent you from getting plaque.
Dental plaque can harm your overall health.
When it comes to evolutionary dental issues, Otzi is a near-modern, living in a fully agricultural Late Neolithic society, with plaque-inducing foodstuffs as staples. As a rule, with all their painful health problems, pre-agricultural peoples had little plaque and few cavities even into the ripe old age of 40 - 60. Worn teeth abound, however, in the Stone Age material.
Sure, but the OP specifically mentioned the lack of modern dentistry 1000 years ago, and we have plenty of examples of dental issues for more or less modern man spanning several thousand years.
Well, yes, that’s the point, though. “Protective” plaque didn’t exist, even prehistorically.
It’s clear the OP has formed a pseudo-scientific hypothesis that doesn’t make any sense at several different stages, from how plaque and dental health works, to how evolution works, to basic history, and beyond.
The first immigrants to Australia found that the natives had much superior condition of their teeth - they had no sugar.