Our ancestors also suffered from dental problems: cavities, abscesses and bad breath were already very common 15,000 years ago.
Toothache and bad breath are not plagues of the modern age. Our ancestors suffered from dental pain 15,000 years ago. These results, published on January 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, are taken from the study of skeletons discovered in Morocco.
Wild fruits as bad as candy
Half of the hunter-gatherers in the Pigeon Cave, near Taforalt (Morocco) suffered from cavities. These men, who lived 13,700 to 15,000 years ago, were as affected by dental problems as our contemporaries. “The majority of the occupants of this cave had cavities and dental abscesses, and they often had toothaches and bad breath,” says Dr Isabelle de Groote, professor of anthropology at John Moores University in Liverpool (Grande -Brittany) and co-author of the study.
15,000 years ago, prehistoric men had not developed agriculture. Until today, it was thought that the appearance of cavities was linked to the development of cereal cultivation (- 9,000). The hunter-gatherers of Taforalt, on the other hand, ate acorns, pine nuts, and nuts rich in carbohydrates. The bacteria that cause cavities need fermentable carbohydrates to thrive. They are therefore likely to be found in these wild fruits, which are as bad for the teeth as products made with refined sugar.
Dental hygiene and mortality
This discovery also calls into question the nomadism of this population of prehistoric men. The spread of infection such as tooth decay is linked to promiscuity. These hunter-gatherers were therefore more sedentary than people thought. This poor dental hygiene could even explain the high mortality of these populations. “In modern societies, poor dental hygiene is linked to systematic health problems, such as cardiovascular disease, and could be the cause of high death rates among hunter-gatherers as well,” says Dr de Groote.
The supposedly healthy lifestyle of our ancestors is definitely taking a hit. It was also recently discovered that our forefathers suffered from atherosclerosis, those patches of fat that clog and damage our blood vessels. Researchers have indeed discovered residues of atherosclerotic plaques in the aortas, femoral or iliac arteries of mummies dating back more than 4000 years!
But if prehistoric men had good reason to suffer from dental hygiene disorders, modern humans have no excuse: just brushing their teeth twice a day for two minutes to avoid these inconveniences.
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