Certain animals lose teeth and grow new ones, others can lose tails and grow a new one.
Us humans lose a tooth or teeth and that’s it, we’re fucked :mad:
So why the hell haven’t we evolved to grow new teeth when we lose some?.
I mean it’s bloody annoying having to suck roast beef through a straw, not that I have to y’unnerstand but it’s getting that way
First, remember that you did lose most of your teeth once already, and grew new ones.
As for why we can’t grow new ones after that: because adult teeth are sufficient to get the job done long enough for you to reproduce.
Most people’s adult teeth don’t start falling out until well after sexual maturity. Remember that in the grand scheme of things, living past 30 or so is a pretty recent development.
Only on average, but that’s because of high infant mortality. For as long as there have been records of such things, a person who made it to 30 or so had a pretty decent chance of making it to 70 or 80.
Explain your second para.
I fail to see what my teeth have to do with reproduction.
We may lose our first set of baby teeth but after that we’re screwed
You mentioned evolution. Evolution works by promoting those traits which cause one to be more likely to reproduce. Since our teeth are sufficient enough to last through our reproductive maturity, having teeth that regrow after falling out would not be something that would give any individual a reproductive advantage.
If the advantage does not make a person more likely to survive and reproduce, it doesn’t get passed on more than other traits, so we don’t evolve that trait.
I had an adult tooth removed and another (third one) grew. It’s only “partially erupted” or some such term. I’ve never tried to reproduce with it … yet.
The advantage of having a nice smile is much more guaranteed to entice the ladies than giving them a gummy grin.
Teeth=Reproduction possibilities
Gums= Masturbating, alone and unloved 
Dude, I know you’re in England, but even you guys have dentures, right?
Note that, in humans and a few other species, traits that only manifest after reproductive years can still be evolutionarily significant. Sure, an 80 year old isn’t going to be having many more kids, but they can still help their children or grandchildren live and succeed, so they do have an impact on the number of descendants they have. This is presumably why humans live so long compared to other mammals in the first place.
Listen sonny, the old joke about us British having manky teeth is wearing a bit thin.
Sure at one time we had problems with our choppers but believe me those days are long gone, our peggies are just as good as yours in the good 'ol US of A.
And yes we do have dentures, to answer your rhetorical question.
Sheesh, some people;)
The thing is: First there has to be someone with a mutation enabling him to grow a third set of teeth. If that ability enables him to reproduce more than the rest of us, he has an evolutionary advantage, as do his offspring. But if nobody has that mutation in the first place, or if it doesn’t prove to be an evolutionary advantage, we’re back to square one.
Pick the time and place for your battles, Chowder. This thread ain’t it 
Also, that advantage has to outweigh the ‘cost’ of growing additional sets of teeth. There is always a cost, in terms of such things as the energy diverted to growing teeth rather than fueling your body, the additional complexity of the dental structure, etc.
With my extensive knowledge of the American language, I believe the correct response to this is:
BITE ME!
OK if that’s how you wanna go buddy…behind the bike sheds in 15 mins and come tooled up;)
Me too. I had an adult molar removed at age 15, up came a replacement.
I don’t think you understood my point. I just meant that if you want to have an argument that the English don’t have manky teeth, an OP comprising an Englishman complaining about his manky teeth might not be the most advantageous place to have it.
And I don’t think you understood my OP.
I wasn’t complaining about an Englishman having/or not manky teeth, I was asking why we hadn’t evolved to grow others when we lose some, by we I mean humans as a race.
When talking about evolution, the question of “why hasn’t such and such happened” is meaningless. It hasn’t happened because it never happened. We could sit around all day and think of ways we could improve the design of creatures around us, but evolution, being on the most fundamental level driven by random processes, hasn’t happened upon them. Such is life.
Not so much that the current design gets us through the reproductive cycle, but that until recently it was more than enough to get us through life.
As freido mentioned and Chronos expanded on. During the design phase one set was enough to survive long enough on. Recorded history hasn’t been enough time for a significant revision.
But it looks like we might be getting there ourselves. Link.