>
> "The only body parts requiring regular surgery are the teeth," says Lucas.
> "It is extraordinary that the normal development of human teeth routinely
> fails to produce 'ideal' dentition," he says - and no one has yet been
> able
> to offer an explanation for this phenomenon.



This person seems ignorant. He should go back and look at human skeletons as
recently as a few thousand years ago. Strong, straight teeth. Or he could
look at photos of peoples from around the world. Certain countries produce
many people with badly  formed teeth, other countries have most people with
very good teeth.

The Japanese in particular have terrible teeth. They are usually thick and
strong with few cavities, but terrible mal-positioned. Japanese dentists
blame the very soft modern diet. Skulls from early history, genetically
identical to modern Japanese have very wide faces and strong jaws. Modern
Japanese are much narrower-faced and have the bad tooth development.



>
> Teeth can also be missing - wisdom teeth simply do not have enough space
> to
> fit into the jaw, and sometimes do not form at all. In contrast most other
> mammals - including our close relatives, the great apes - have very low
> frequencies of malocclusion, Lucas told New Scientist.



It is interesting to note that malocclusion is also common in domestic
animals.


> >We just returned from a orthodontic consultation for my 10 year old and
> two
> >issues came up which I'd like to open up for discussion.
> >
> >First (and least important), was the question of why humans have wisdom
> >teeth, since almost no one seems able to keep theirs.



If you eat tough, low carb food you will have no trouble with wisdom teeth.
This is entirely a problem on soft, high-carb diets. Or do dentists think
that orthodontal surgery is the norm in the whole world thoughout history?


> >
> >Second, orthodontics are offered and encouraged very early these
> days.  My
> >10 y.o., it seems, requires an expander to make room in the upper jaw.
> >(She
> >has not been on a paleo diet. I only discovered paleo myself last fall,
> and
> >my family is making smaller, slower adjustments than I.)



We have a dentist on the list. I hope he comments.