Alexander Maksimov/Shutterstock.com
Male monks were not the sole producers of books throughout the Middle Ages.
Time to brush up.
WAYHOME Studio/Shutterstock
You may think you know everything about keeping your teeth healthy, but what you don’t know might surprise you…
The surgical removal of wisdom teeth is far more common than the problems they cause.
(Pixabay)
When they cause problems, wisdom teeth don’t seem very smart. But they may have been evolution’s answer to a coarse diet.
Canadian orthoodontists were able to sell braces and other orthodental procedures by promising patients better lives with better teeth.
(Shutterstock)
Why do Canadians have such straight white teeth? The story is in the marketing of orthodontics in Canada.
Fossilised tooth crowns hold lots of information about past climates and life events.
Tanya M Smith
The teeth from two Neanderthal children and a relatively modern human child reveal their exposure to seasonal changes during their early life.
Up to 14% of toddlers have “hypomineralised second primary molars” (HSPM), where the enamel (outer layer) of the second baby molars doesn’t develop properly.
plantic/Shutterstock
Despite good oral hygiene, some children have weak teeth that are more prone to decay.
Cereal portions this big are not good for children.
Daisy Daisy/Shutterstock
The marketing of breakfast cereals may be confusing consumers with a mix of true and inflated claims.
Most of the time you won’t be able to tell if a puppy or kitten’s tooth falls out. Often they fall out in food, or the animal might even swallow them.
Shutterstock
Puppies and kittens are born without teeth, but by around two months of age they have a full set of baby teeth.
Teeth and bones can tell something about age – but not someone’s birthday.
Journal of Forensic Dental Sciences
If an undocumented migrant is a minor or an adult can have far-reaching implications. A forensic anthropologist explains why relying solely on dental X-rays to determine age doesn’t work.
Sunrise at noon in the Arctic. Little exposure to sun was a piece of the genetic puzzle.
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
Why was one gene mutation that affects hair, teeth, sweat glands and breasts ubiquitous among ice age Arctic people? New research points to the advantage it provided for ancestors of Native Americans.
More than one-third of five- and six-year-olds have decay in their ‘baby'teeth.
from www.shutterstock.com
Even those who regularly clean their teeth typically don’t brush for the recommended two minutes.
Teeth fossils with evidence of dental lesions from Australopithecus africanus .
Ian Towle
Prehistoric humans and their predecessors may have had a very different diet but their teeth suffered in similar ways to ours.
A study of “Mrs” Ples’ tooth sockets has made scientists think differently about “her” sex.
Ditsong National Museum of Natural History
This new research offers compelling proof that the naysayers were right. “Mrs” Ples was actually a “Mr”.
Fossilized teeth from a modern human who lived in Israel close to 200,000 years ago.
Israel Hershkovitz, Tel Aviv University
New discoveries are changing archaeologists’ ideas about the origins of our own species and our migration out of Africa. This fossil pushes Homo sapiens’ African exodus date back by 50,000 years.
No, you can’t blame (most) tooth decay on your parents. But for crooked teeth, the story’s a little more complicated.
from www.shutterstock.com
Can you blame bad teeth on your genes? Here’s why the answer is not as simple as you might think.
Ancient whales, such as Janjucetus illustrated here, used their sharp teeth to capture and process their prey.
Carl Buell
Ancient whales were neither gentle, nor giants: they were smaller than those of today and judging from their teeth, a lot meaner.
Upper jaw of Paranthropus robustus, which lived 1.2-1.8m years ago.
Ian Towle
Diet and disease leave characteristic marks on our teeth which can reman for millions of years.
Lida Ajer cave - a small but well decorated front entrance.
Julien Louys
The evidence of a much earlier presence of humans in Indonesia was found more than 100 years ago. But only now has the age of the fossil teeth been accurately dated.
Teeth don’t lie.
Ian Towle
Homo naledi seems to have enjoyed small, hard foods like nuts.
The edges of your lost tooth are sharp because when the root of the baby tooth is being eaten away, it tends to start from the middle of the root. That leaves a sharp edge behind when the tooth breaks off.
Flickr/Stephanie Young
Nicholas, aged 6, was watching TV one day when his tooth fell out. He noticed that the bottom edge of the tooth was very spiky. Now he wants to know why.