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What specifically causes the breakdown of teeth? (self.askbiologists)

submitted 2 years ago by breadsmasher to c/askbiologists

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When you see images of skulls from 100,000 years ago, they have seemingly perfect teeth.

Today, modern humans have terrible dental health. I understand sugar causes a number of issues- the growth of bacteria which decays enamel.

What is the process teeth go through in the modern world to cause this? How quickly after consuming a sugary drink for example does this degradation start to occur?

And as a follow up, how does tooth paste help prevent this?

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[–] ndr 2 points 2 years ago

Yes, the amount and the frequency are the cause. I’m no anthropologist but they did not have access to all this sugar all the time like we do now. Even our fruit is much sweeter than it used to be even only a few centuries ago (we selected for those traits).

As I said, our saliva should be able to neutralize the acids after some time, but this is not enough if we introduce sugar all the time in our mouth.