How did "cavemen" clean their teeth?

Angela

Elite member
Messages
21,823
Reaction score
12,325
Points
113
Ethnic group
Italian
With a certain amount of pain. :)

See:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...h-yours/?postshare=5511482541135888&tid=ss_tw

"The earliest known toothbrushes date back to 3500 B.C., found in Egyptian tombs next to their owners. They're pieces of stick, really, with frayed ends to whisk away debris. But the fact that the Egyptians thought to pack a toothbrush on their trip to the afterlife hints at one of the most vexing problems throughout human history: How do we get gunk out of our teeth?"

The hunter-gatherers did the same thing apparently, using little wooden sticks.


"
Karen Hardy may have cracked the mystery, literally, by breaking down calcified plaque from some of the oldest human remains in Europe." (These are remains from northern Spain.)

"
She was able to discern that they ate grass, seeds, other plants and meat — all raw, indicating they didn't yet use fire to cook. She also found spores, tiny insect fragments and pollen grains — things they inhaled because they likely lived in a forest.But the most compelling thing were pieces of indigestible wood fibers. Hardy believes they're from small sticks early humans would jam in their teeth to clean them."

 
True.

Forget about cavemen, what about our kin from only 100 years ago.

Anyone who has ever felt the pain of an abscess can imagine the sheer pain they would have endured if they ever came across one, which they would have at least once or twice over a lifetime (as short and brutish as it may have been).

Back to the cavemen, I note that with domestic dogs, a diet which includes plenty of raw bones keeps their teeth and gums extremely healthy and clean.
 
Back to the cavemen, I note that with domestic dogs, a diet which includes plenty of raw bones keeps their teeth and gums extremely healthy and clean.
Good point. Adaptation to environment is the key. I wonder if Amazon jungle hunter gatherers or pygmies (if still pure) clean their teeth? They are on paleo diet after all, more what people ate for millions of years.
I believe our problem with teeth happened when we started gorge on starches, and extreme problem in modern times with candies and other pure surgers.
 
Some groups knew more:

"People who lived in Sudan 2,000 years ago, for example, chewed purple nutsedge, a bitter weed whose antibacterial properties warded away cavity-causing bacteria, according to National Geographic."

Hunter-gatherers from cold climates, who had little access to large amounts of starches would definitely have had fewer cavities. However, a study of North African hunter-gatherers, who had access to a lot of filbert nuts (my favorite, by the way), had teeth which were riddled with cavities.
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-nuts-tooth-hunter-gatherers.html

I don't know why the researchers focused in on their bad breath. Although, come to think of it, between the cavities and the eating of all that raw meat it must have been horrendous. Still, considering what their bodies must have smelled like, what's the big whoops? :)

@ Joey,
I'm sure a significant percentage of deaths in past ages was from teeth abscesses. Having had one, I'm sure death was a welcome release from the pain. :(
 

This thread has been viewed 3223 times.

Back
Top