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Physiology & Medicine / Why do Africans have such white teeth?
« on: 25/07/2009 16:35:28 »
Researching the question "why do Africans show, on average, such white coloured teeth, I only get 2 directions to further my thinking: 1) the contrast with the darkness of the skin colour, which I think holds no validity and 2) the thickness of the enamel.
There surely is reason to have the enamel thicker, but the reason most often cited: Western style diet does not seem to hold up very well as there are many generations of Africans exposed to western style diets who seem to not show the effects of such.
Could the answer lie more in Darwinian selection, i.e. could the far more recent emergence out of 'primitive' societal organization/lifestyle have conferred survival benefits on the healthier and more capable tooth owners? And the propagation of less capable teeth have occurred through advances in medicine and general support of the cultural advances into agricultural & urban societies and have lessened the effects of poor(er) teeth?
I am trying to arrive at an answer to my question following the same type of reasoning applied to the incidence of disorders like deficienteye sight, diabetes mellitus etc.
There surely is reason to have the enamel thicker, but the reason most often cited: Western style diet does not seem to hold up very well as there are many generations of Africans exposed to western style diets who seem to not show the effects of such.
Could the answer lie more in Darwinian selection, i.e. could the far more recent emergence out of 'primitive' societal organization/lifestyle have conferred survival benefits on the healthier and more capable tooth owners? And the propagation of less capable teeth have occurred through advances in medicine and general support of the cultural advances into agricultural & urban societies and have lessened the effects of poor(er) teeth?
I am trying to arrive at an answer to my question following the same type of reasoning applied to the incidence of disorders like deficienteye sight, diabetes mellitus etc.