Pre-dentistry, a bunch of your teeth would have fallen out before your wisdom teeth came in. There would have been space for the wisdom teeth so they wouldn’t need to come in sideways.
I don't envy the humans pre-dentistry
Submitted 2 months ago by The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/69cc16f4-50b3-418a-a61f-9011124fc886.jpeg
Comments
Limonene@lemmy.world 2 months ago
thisisbutaname@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
We used to have larger mouths, they’ve been shrinking as we evolved
Lyrl@lemm.ee 2 months ago
they’ve been shrinking as we
evolvedchanged our dietNo genetic changes (evolution) happened. If as children we ate only very tough meat and lots of chewy vegetables - no bread or rice or potato softness - our same genetics would result in much larger adult jaws.
rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 2 months ago
How are we supposed to be taken seriously in glactic politics if we can’t chomp aliens in a few thousand years.
Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I haven’t had my wisdom teeth extracted because my doctor said my mouth was big enough. The only real issue is brushing them so I have to clench my mouth almost shut to even reach them while brushing.
I never got all the fun drugs though.
ryedaft@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Are you sure about that? We lost so many teeth after the industrialisation of sugar production (machines and slavery) but I’m not sure how bad it was before then.
shortypig@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
And our teeth really went downhill after we started reproducing without the quality check provided by survival of the fittest. The remains of hunter gatherers generally have very nice teeth.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I had to get my wisdoms out before all the baby teeth came out so pre-dentistry I’d have been fucked.
superkret@feddit.org 2 months ago
If you’d been fucked (and reproduced), your shitty teeth genes would have made it into the next generation.
cattywampas@lemm.ee 2 months ago
This is what gets me about the sentiment of “humans lived for hundreds of thousands of years without toothpaste/sunscreen/antibiotics/vaccines/etc and we were just fine!”
My dude, we were most definitely not fine. A lot of people died painful and preventable deaths, many of them children, and we’re around today because existing that way was just good enough to keep us going as a species.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
“They were just fine!” You mean that the 40-60% of people who lived past 15 were just fine until about 50-70?
jumbonipples@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Just because people still lived a long time doesn’t mean they had a good time living.
ikidd@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Well, see, your mistake is brushing your teeth and living past 30. If your back molars were properly rotten enough to gracefully pop out when the wisdoms grew in, and then you died before that one rotted and you couldn’t chew anymore, you wouldn’t have any problems.
Literally.
ShankShill@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Ancient humans had surprisingly good teeth. They weren’t soaked in acid and sugar.
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Depends on where they were and what they were eating. Humans are really amazing in that we can eat almost anything that’s not a straight up tree, and we’ve existed across the planet in just about every ecological niche. I remember reading somewhere they could estimate the age of desert burial/skeleton remains on how worn the teeth are due to the sand getting in the food. But I’m sure no processed sugar is pretty beneficial tho
SGforce@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Still may have lost a few from some bucking animal you were chasing after. Or your cousin chucking a rock at the *bird" he said he saw behind you.
ikidd@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Until we got agriculture.
Triasha@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Not all. Pre industrial humans where I live ate a lot of slow roasted cactus. After 2 days buried with hot stones the cactus hearts were caramelized. I’ve tasted it prepared in the traditional manner and it’s just syrup in a leaf. Delicious, and I have no doubt it was great energy for people that had to walk miles every day.
Anyone that lived past 30 had their teeth rot right out of their head, according to the archiological record.
TwanHE@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Can still hear the sound of them breaking it to get it out
Baphomet_The_Blasphemer@lemmy.world 2 months ago
All four of my wisdom teeth were impacted, and it took around six hours for them to be removed. Thankfully, I was unconscious during the procedure.
TwanHE@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Oh this was a fast one, was back in the waiting room within 15m, 10 of which was waiting for the localised pain killer to kick in before starting.
demizerone@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Ah yes how I remember them chiseling my tooth out with a hammer. The surgeon I had was a bad ass.
Agent641@lemmy.world 2 months ago
“You really shouldn’t be awake for this” - the orthodontist crushing my sideways wisdom teeth with pliers so he can rip the shards out individually.
TwanHE@lemmy.world 2 months ago
We don’t do general anesthesia for most things dental related here in NL. But after hearing the sound bounce around I’m my head I wish we did.
Gonzako@lemmy.world 2 months ago
that’s me atm. luckily they’ve stopped moving and I don’t feel any pain but it’s a breeding ground of the unfunny kind
sbv@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Me: does nothing
Evolution: fuck you
Snowclone@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s because humans in the wild would lose teeth by that time and need more.
CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
For anybody who thinks that animals in their natural environment are all happy…yeah imagine living for decades without any sort of dental care. Evolution is about surviving, not thriving.
Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
It’s odd to me that anyone fantasizes about nature in general being peaceful. Especially when the plot of most nature documentaries can be summarized as “fall in love with this creature, then experience the stress of watching it struggle desperately to survive.”
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
Your uaw got smaller and you stopped losing teeth so fast. It’s your own fault, really.
pdqcp@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
This little cunt of mine tended to inflame every other month instead of teething already. I decided to remove it, and I ended up spending almost 2 hours in surgery because it had fused into another tooth. Instead of coming out cleanly, it broke and a few fragments were left behind
Doc said it was okay to leave it as it would be absorbed or come out again eventually. Almost a year later, and the little prick sends his regards by inflaming my face completely and having to rush to surgery again.
Hopefully it was the end of that. Fuck this SOB
fossilesque@mander.xyz 2 months ago
Mine were growing directly sideways. I’m an evolutionary failure.
Halosheep@lemm.ee 2 months ago
So were mine. They had to shatter most of them to get them out.
Passed out from the pain the first time I tried to eat post operation, lol
fossilesque@mander.xyz 2 months ago
Yea I got dry sockets after, even after being really careful. It was a nightmare. I remember lying on the floor on the carpet drooling trying to eat mac n cheese.
harmsy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I guess I should by a lottery ticket, then, because my wisdom teeth came in pretty much straight. The only problem I ever have is getting anything back there for cleaning.
Kualdir@feddit.nl 2 months ago
Mine ARE growing directly sideways 🫠 at least the bottom ones
TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Born without wisdom teeth…
Not sure if that makes me more evolved or less lol
srestegosaurio@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Mine’s are pointing 90° on the wrong direction.
They are dormant but I’ve warned that if they decide to start being funny I’ll be fucked. :D
Shou@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Depends. I had 4 at 90°. Only one hurt a little. They caused pockets, which are hard to clean (impossible by yourself) and can accelerate bone loss. I removed 3 of them. 2 by a jaw surgeon. They were creating a space bewteen molars deeper inside the bone, while also creating an opening at the top. Nasty.
Chronic inflamation of the gums don’t hurt either. Best way to tell is by a mouth hygiënist. If your gums bleed easily while flossing, it’s a good idea to keep flossing. Takes about 1-2 weeks before the gums calm down and the swelling dissipates. I use those tiny round brushes to get in between. If you start using those, m start with the thinnest wire. The metal should absolutely not scrape against the teeth, only the brush.
Taken years to form that habit…
aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
mine grew in sideways too. I have had them all removed now, but my teeth are forever fucked because of them.
Geobloke@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I went to the dentist and he was looking at me all surprised and he said, you’re jaw is so primitive, all your wisdom came through without issues.
A few years later I had to have an emergency removal because they decayed too much as I didn’t brush that far back
theangryseal@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Dude, more. 200% more as my wife and I sit her and suffer tonight. She’s getting it dealt with next month, mine rotting out while I wait to even get a luxury bone appointment.
You are the clear evolutionary winner.
darkmogool@feddit.org 2 months ago
I only had them on the right side. Not shure what this means evolutionary…
TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Better than the wrong side I guess 🤷
Squorlple@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It means that humans developed empathy and the scientific means to help each other avoid natural selection. Intraspecies and interspecies empathy is the cheat code against natural selection. Certain ram species, for example, also were not designed intelligently, so as they age they may grow their horns until they penetrate their skull and kill them. Natural selection is most effective when it culls prior to the life form procreating. However, thanks to the power of empathy, we can abate natural selection by performing oral surgery on humans (ideally in our adolescence for wisdom teeth removal) and by shaving rams’ horns as they age. Ideally, as science develops and empathy spreads, we can come up with more effective and painless means to ensure everybody has a chance to live and be happy.
judgyweevil@feddit.it 2 months ago
Human mandible shrank a bit the last millenia, probably caused by thebrise of agricolture and easily chewable food, but that left less space for teeth to grow properly
Fluke@lemm.ee 2 months ago
“Intelligent Design”
Fucking LOL
roguesignal@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I think a lot of folks assume that evolution means “all the crappy stuff whittled out over time, and only the good stuff remains” when in fact I think evolution aims for “eh, they reproduced. Good enough”
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 months ago
I saw the X-ray of my own jaw and they wanted to remove my wisdom teeth and were asking if they hurt (they don’t) because they are fully sideways and apparently pressing against a nerve.
lorty@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
My wife did the same as you. Ten years later her wisdom teeth, in the process of trying to get out, broke one of her other teeth so she had to not only remove them but restore her once healthy tooth. Much more expensive (and painful) this way.
Lennnny@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They can actually seriously fuck up your mouth very quickly, and you often won’t find out until the fuckery is underway. I had two removed when the dentist told me they might cause future problems, I had no pain, but now they’re out I can actually feel my teeth kinda relaxing? I guess the pressure was there but I just got used to it.
The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I delayed it for maybe 10 years after they first started asking if I wanted to get them removed, then finally decided it was time about a year or two ago. The recovery sucked for a couple of days, but I don’t remember my bill being exceptionally bad (I think my insurance paid quite a bit though).
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 months ago
I think my insurance paid quite a bit though
I only have the free insurance from the state and while the health insurance is excellent and covers every single thing I can think of, the dental side sucks major balls. Getting wisdom teeth removed is considered cosmetic, so they won’t cover it at all, and pretty much any good dentist is expensive as fuck for anything but a cleaning or cavity fill without insurance.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 months ago
Same thing happened to my dad when he was like 50.
index@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Evolution didn’t make your teeth to grow like this. While people in the past probably had shitty teeth keep in mind that modern diets filled with sugars, processed food and all sort of junk are a cause of teeth problems
thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That’s a wisdom tooth. They just grow like that, no sugar needed
index@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_tooth
“The oldest known impacted wisdom tooth belonged to a European woman who lived between 13,000 and 11,000 BCE, in the Magdalenian period. Nonetheless, molar impaction was relatively rare prior to the modern era. With the Industrial Revolution, the affliction became ten times more common, owing to the new prevalence of soft, processed foods.”
exasperation@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Evolution didn’t make your teeth to grow like this.
Modern diets are just selection pressure. Evolution marches on.
tauren@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Every time people say “it’d be nice to live in the 50s” or something like that, I always think: “Nope, I’d never trade modern medicine for anything else.”
scytale@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Hell, even just 30 years ago was way different. My experience of getting a root canal in 2024 was a million times better than when I had one in the ‘90s.
Zwiebel@feddit.org 2 months ago
Science is pretty goated ngl
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 2 months ago
Dude medical science is progressing at a rate where I might genuinely be able to cheer science on to outpace my natural aging for certain age-related procedures and ailments that commonly afflict people late in life
HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Evolution meant to tell you to get out of the gene pool.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
Medical science is one of the only reasons I’m happy to be alive now and not during other times. Everything else is absolute shit, but our ability to manage and cure disease and the like is amazing.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Yeah, going to the doctor for a headache and seeing him pull out a drill doesn’t sound too fun.
peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 2 months ago
Yeah, but either way the headache goes away pretty fast.
Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Of you’re not the majority ethnicity, not male, not abled, not an accepted sexuality, any time other than the present would’ve sucked much much more than today does.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 2 months ago
Dude modern needles alone make it so much better
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Watched a documentary on the history of surgery and man, modern medicine is one of the things I’m grateful for.
burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 2 months ago
my wisdom teeth surgery was the best sleep ive ever had
SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I gained some semblance of consciousness and heard crunching before I drifted back out.
RizzoTheSmall@lemm.ee 2 months ago
This ain’t evolution. This is science counterevolutionarily keeping our ancestors alive long enough to procreate who should have died. I guess it’s evolution in a way since we’ve evolved to overcome the evolutionary concept of “survival of the fittest” or natural selection.
Tomassci@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Oh yes, the Geological Faultocalized inside my mouth. I had four of them.
joyjoy@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Evolutionarily, it only matters that you reproduce.
the_beber@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I can‘t even do that. The reason: Skill issue
Deceptichum@quokk.au 2 months ago
So that’s evolution at work.
Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Based
FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
… and that your children survive to reproduce
pr0sp3kt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
We DO NOT have any incentive to grow up kids. I have never feel that impulse…