Modern human’s wisdom teeth problem

I used to wonder how wisdom teeth could be such a problem (so many people have to get them removed!), and, yet, before dentistry happened, it couldn’t have been. Surely all those people back then weren’t suffering from impacted wisdom teeth? Well, Dr. Lieberman, an evolutionary biology professor at Harvard, points out in an interview with Claudia Dreifus at the New York Times:

[I]mpacted wisdom teeth and malocclusions are very recent problems. They arise because we now process our food so much that we chew with little force. These interactions affect how our faces grow, which causes previously unknown dental problems. Hunter-gatherers — who live in ways similar to our ancestors — don’t have impacted wisdom teeth or cavities. There are many other conditions rooted in the mismatch — fallen arches, osteoporosis, cancer, myopia, diabetes and back trouble.

Huh. The more you know.

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