[leobg]

Related observations:

1) Ötzi had cavities and gum disease.

“Ötzi, a Stone Age man who died atop a glacier about 5300 years ago, suffered from severe gum disease and cavities.” [1]

2) Sailor Steven Callahan, after 72 days adrift in the Atlantic ocean, where he subsisted on fish and birds, after being rescued:

"When I wake up in the morning, I look into the mirror. My God! Who's that? The face I see is straight out of Robinson Crusoe. Long, stringy bleached hair, hollow eyes, drawn brown skin, shaggy beard. Michelle Monternot gives me a toothbrush. It feels strange in my mouth. What's even stranger is that my teeth are not crusty and slimy but are remarkably clean. I wonder what my dentist would say about that." [2]

[1] https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceshot-iceman-h....

[2] https://books.google.com/books?redir_esc=y&hl=en&id=ebUKAQAA...

[washadjeffmad]

Yours was the first sensible comment I came across.

While it's true the availability of fermentable carbohydrates in modern diets has contributed to the prevalence of dental caries, etc, it is mostly collective cultural amnesia to believe our ancestors had perfect teeth.

The concept of "tooth worms" existed for thousands of years prior to the advent of medical science. I'm on mobile, but I also recall reading about ancient remains (possibly pre-humans) with drilled cavities, woven metal bracings, and many other types of dental protheses.

[marginalia_nu]

My personal experience from dabbling in low-carb diets is that dental plaque goes away almost completely in a relatively short amount of time.

Admittedly such a diet shift does a lot to upset your microbes, what once flourished with abundant carbohydrates is suddenly starving and maladapted. May be that eventually something else would come along that is better optimized to the new environment.

[mejutoco]

In Man in search of meaning Viktor Frankl mentions in passing how his gums and teeth are healthier than ever, although he mostly ate minimum amounts of bread.