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Comment by coldpie | Hacker News Reader

IMO teeth are the worst part of the human body. Hard to take care of, will inevitably fail, not replaceable, massively painful for even minor injuries. Evolution really screwed the pooch on teeth.

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Our diet is nothing like what our teeth evolved for. For example for most people, cutting down the amount of sugars (down to levels similar to our prehistoric ancestors) they consume can go a long way in protecting dental health (and general health for that matter)

Teeth are the canary in the coal mine. "The canary is the worst part of the coal mine, it can hardly handle anything!"

Somewhere evolution is saying “well I gave you four perfectly decent extra molars that you insist on ripping out, if you kept those your teeth would be mostly fine for however long your are supposed to live. Mid 50’s?”

Teeth are amazing. One of the areas where human crystal formation happens. Our modern diets are horrible for teeth.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t4RgBZlKlJI

Evolution expects us to grind away about a millimeter of our teeth while we are young by eating rougher things to make way for wisdom teeth, for example.

For healthy teeth, you should be very hydrated. If your mouth isn’t watering, you might not be hydrated enough.

Haven't watched the video, but:

> One of the areas where human crystal formation happens

Especially one of the areas where you want crystals to form. Unlike in your urinary and bladders. ;)

Well, teeth perform perhaps the most difficult task of the entire body. Take entirely external substances of all kinds of textures and densities and contaminants, crush all that to tiny particles, try not to get worn down too far in the process...

People in the past had better teeth than us, it's the sugar these days that cause so many dental problems. If you ate like those in the past, you similarly will have good teeth.

Spines seem to be similar in that regard. Huge "fuckup" (bound to fail badly) in many ways, but freed hands.

Feels like engineering: It's all trade-offs.

Sharks really got the good teeth genes.

Would be fun too have re-growing teeth, probably not so fun to swallow them in those sizes so frequently.

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