Oral hygiene vs. modern food processing?

[Earthworm_Jim]

Over the holiday, I managed to catch a program on Discovery about the 5000-ish year old mummified guy found in the Italian alps sometime in the 90’s. One thing mentioned was that the guy had no cavities, due to the fact that food wasn’t processed enough to cause humans dental problems.

I’ve never heard of this concept before. My first instinct is: Don’t believe anything you see on TV. So I ask you, is it true? Are modern dental problems the direct result of food processing and treatment? If I were to decide only to eat a “hunted and gathered” diet for the rest of my life, could I reasonably expect not to have dental problems?

Thanks!

[Shagnasty]

Yes, it is basically true. Very primitive cultures tend to have very few cavities (dental carries) compared to people in more “advanced” societies. This is mainly due to two reasons:

1. Lack of refined sugar in the diet - this is a huge contributer to dental problems and is especially bad if you have the technology to refine sugar but not to make a decent toothbrush and dental floss. IIRC, modern toothbrushes were not widely available until the 1930’s. Imagine the state of dental health in the US prior to that time.

2. Grit in the diet - It is true. Earlier cultures could not clean their meat and veggies as well as we do today so bits of dirt and sand were eaten along with the food. This polished the teeth so that any cavities that were trying tio gain a foothold were polished away before they could fully develop.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

My children’s dentist has also told me many times over the years that’s it’s not just the refined sugar itself, but the refined sugar combined with sticky carbohydrates, that all gets caught in your teeth and at the gum line and causes tooth decay and gingivitis. The memorable way he puts it is, “Kool-Aid just mostly washes on down, but a cookie is forever.”

Here’s the official ADA position.

http://www.ada.org/public/media/newsrel/0012/nr-02.html

According to Dr. Messina, it’s not necessarily the amount of sugar in the candy or cakes you put in your mouth, it’s the consistency of the candy.

“The stickier things are, like fruit cakes and gummy bears, the less likely they’ll be washed out from between the teeth by saliva,” warns Dr. Messina. “Any kind of candy that sticks to your teeth is more harmful to your teeth than a chocolate bar that gets washed away.”

http://www.ada.org/public/faq/decay.html

Tooth decay is a destruction of the tooth enamel. It occurs when foods containing carbohydrates (sugars and starches) such as milk, pop, raisins, cakes or candy are frequently left on the teeth. Bacteria that live in the mouth thrive on these foods, producing acids as a result. Over a period of time, these acids destroy tooth enamel, resulting in tooth decay.

Bacteria in your mouth can convert carbohydrates (starches) into sugar, so, theoretically at least, even people who avoid sugar like the plague can have tooth decay.
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSDNT000/24822/25018.html

Many different types of bacteria normally live in the human mouth. They accumulate (along with saliva, food particles and other natural substances) on the surface of the teeth in a sticky film called plaque. Plaque forms especially readily in cracks, pits or fissures in the back teeth; between teeth; around dental fillings or bridgework and near the gum line. Some of the plaque bacteria convert sugar and carbohydrates (starches) in the foods we eat into acids. These acids dissolve minerals in the surface of the tooth, forming microscopic pits or erosions that enlarge over time.

http://www.dent.ucla.edu/ce/caries/

Caries of root surfaces occurred in a small proportion of adults in ancient societies, just as it does in ‘primitive’ societies today. The disease can occur after periodontal disease has caused gingival recession, if the diet contains a high level of carbohydrates, such as plant starches. When such caries occurs it usually causes few problems. The lesions tend to increase in size relatively slowly, over many years. The associated progression of periodontal disease usually causes the loosening and then loss of teeth before such caries progresses sufficiently to cause more severe infection. A very different kind of caries developed and became a problem for people in Europe and then in North America in the 1700’s.

The manufacture, distribution and marketing of sucrose as a food additive became common through the development of the sugar cane industry in North America, then the sugar beet industry in Europe.

A large proportion of people in the countries where sucrose became widely available developed rapidly-advancing dental caries which began in the tooth enamel.

So, primitive societies don’t have as much dental caries as developed societies, but it’s still there.