4 ms·

To me, kids and younger adults look fine, put them in current fashions and they'd pass today without comment. It's the middle-aged and older ones whose faces ar

by fernly 5y ago

To me, kids and younger adults look fine, put them in current fashions and they'd pass today without comment. It's the middle-aged and older ones whose faces are really ravaged by time and experience. And the teeth, oh lordy.

BLKNSLVR 5y ago
Can these old images be used, if ever it becomes necessary, to fight a growing movement against fluoridation of drinking water? Tangentially: only because the winter olympics are on, but do there exist snowboarders that have anything but perfect teeth?
- pbhjpbhj 5y ago
  You have to be pretty wealthy to afford to snowboard (good nutrition, good healthcare, etc.). Then, if you get to the upper echelons of the sport you're looking at getting advertising deals, and so, looking like someone advertiser's want to use images of is probably really helpful.
  - joeman1000 5y ago
    Going by James Nestor’s observations and research in his book ‘Breath’: he relays that a Victorian dentist notes “the better the school, the worse the teeth”. Teeth straightness and overcrowding are ‘upper-class’ issues. Poorer people, in the authors claims, are exposed to tougher food. The increased chewing they do actually causes the palate to grow correctly and without crowding. Soft food does the opposite.
    - tsol 5y ago
      I've heard this before, but it isn't really true any more. We all eat soft, processed foods now with little differences between classes. Although we also have much more advanced dentistry, so it isn't necessarily very obvious either
      - joeman1000 5y ago
        But how could it just suddenly be “not true”? Braces are incredibly expensive (tens of thousands of dollars).
        majormajor 5y ago
        Isn't that exactly how it's not true anymore? Rich and poor both get the same junk food and soft food as kids, but rich have orthodontists.
        joeman1000 5y ago
        No, he posited that there is ‘little difference between the classes’.
    - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
      That is definitely not true now as poor people get the overcrowding as well, not to mention that I'm too lazy to see if this class line is actually true. But more to the point, this person would have been biased. Like today, poor people had some trouble affording the dentist. They would have seen more rich than poor in other words. Like today, good teeth would have been a sign you were wealthy - depending on which country you live in (For example, Brazil has an excellent national dentistry program, and folks tend to go to the dentist regularly as it is cheap-to-free)
    - the-dude 5y ago
      I have read here on HN that by going of pictures alone, people from India seem to have great teeth despite great parts of India are quite poor.
WalterBright 5y ago
People didn't really start using toothbrushes until after WW1.
- astura 5y ago
  Even later for poor/lower class people - my mom was born in the early 1950s and she didn't start brushing her teeth until her teens. I used to think losing all your teeth was a natural part of aging.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    It is natural. I brush/floss assiduously and am looking at losing them all. People older than me usually have a mouth full of crowns, implants and dentures.
    - astura 5y ago
      It's not natural, adult teeth do not spontaneously die off and fall out; adults only lose their teeth because of disease or trauma. When I was a kid I thought it was exactly the same as losing your baby teeth. Greying is natural, tooth loss is not. My grandparents (all 4) had lost all their teeth by their late 40s-early 50s. It was due to never brushing their teeth (they never owned a toothbrush!) plus smoking - not age. I currently have plenty of friends and acquaintances in the late 40s-early 50 age range and not a single one has a full set of dentures like all my grandparents did. https://dentalsolutionsofencinitas.com/blog/tooth-loss-age/ https://dentalsolutionsofencinitas.com/blog/tooth-loss-age/ >In 1960, about 49 percent of adults aged 65-74 had lost all of their teeth. In 2012, about 13 percent of this age bracket was in the same predicament. If tooth loss was just a normal part of aging there would be no way to make such drastic improvements. My husband also brushes and flosses everyday and regularly has tooth issues. I know exactly why though - It's entirely due to poor toothbrushing technique.
      - WalterBright 5y ago
        I go to the dentist every two months, and do everything they suggest, in the way they suggest. Nevertheless, things get gradually worse. I also have multiple teeth being resorbed, a weird thing that the dentist says nobody knows why it happens, and it has nothing to do with dental care. Take a look at some older people. They may not have lost all their teeth, but you can see the crowns and false teeth.

by fernly 5y ago

BLKNSLVR 5y ago

Can these old images be used, if ever it becomes necessary, to fight a growing movement against fluoridation of drinking water? Tangentially: only because the winter olympics are on, but do there exist snowboarders that have anything but perfect teeth?

pbhjpbhj 5y ago
You have to be pretty wealthy to afford to snowboard (good nutrition, good healthcare, etc.). Then, if you get to the upper echelons of the sport you're looking at getting advertising deals, and so, looking like someone advertiser's want to use images of is probably really helpful.
- joeman1000 5y ago
  Going by James Nestor’s observations and research in his book ‘Breath’: he relays that a Victorian dentist notes “the better the school, the worse the teeth”. Teeth straightness and overcrowding are ‘upper-class’ issues. Poorer people, in the authors claims, are exposed to tougher food. The increased chewing they do actually causes the palate to grow correctly and without crowding. Soft food does the opposite.
  - tsol 5y ago
    I've heard this before, but it isn't really true any more. We all eat soft, processed foods now with little differences between classes. Although we also have much more advanced dentistry, so it isn't necessarily very obvious either
    - joeman1000 5y ago
      But how could it just suddenly be “not true”? Braces are incredibly expensive (tens of thousands of dollars).
      - majormajor 5y ago
        Isn't that exactly how it's not true anymore? Rich and poor both get the same junk food and soft food as kids, but rich have orthodontists.
        joeman1000 5y ago
        No, he posited that there is ‘little difference between the classes’.
  - Broken_Hippo 5y ago
    That is definitely not true now as poor people get the overcrowding as well, not to mention that I'm too lazy to see if this class line is actually true. But more to the point, this person would have been biased. Like today, poor people had some trouble affording the dentist. They would have seen more rich than poor in other words. Like today, good teeth would have been a sign you were wealthy - depending on which country you live in (For example, Brazil has an excellent national dentistry program, and folks tend to go to the dentist regularly as it is cheap-to-free)
  - the-dude 5y ago
    I have read here on HN that by going of pictures alone, people from India seem to have great teeth despite great parts of India are quite poor.

WalterBright 5y ago

People didn't really start using toothbrushes until after WW1.

astura 5y ago
Even later for poor/lower class people - my mom was born in the early 1950s and she didn't start brushing her teeth until her teens. I used to think losing all your teeth was a natural part of aging.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  It is natural. I brush/floss assiduously and am looking at losing them all. People older than me usually have a mouth full of crowns, implants and dentures.
  - astura 5y ago
    It's not natural, adult teeth do not spontaneously die off and fall out; adults only lose their teeth because of disease or trauma. When I was a kid I thought it was exactly the same as losing your baby teeth. Greying is natural, tooth loss is not. My grandparents (all 4) had lost all their teeth by their late 40s-early 50s. It was due to never brushing their teeth (they never owned a toothbrush!) plus smoking - not age. I currently have plenty of friends and acquaintances in the late 40s-early 50 age range and not a single one has a full set of dentures like all my grandparents did. https://dentalsolutionsofencinitas.com/blog/tooth-loss-age/ https://dentalsolutionsofencinitas.com/blog/tooth-loss-age/ >In 1960, about 49 percent of adults aged 65-74 had lost all of their teeth. In 2012, about 13 percent of this age bracket was in the same predicament. If tooth loss was just a normal part of aging there would be no way to make such drastic improvements. My husband also brushes and flosses everyday and regularly has tooth issues. I know exactly why though - It's entirely due to poor toothbrushing technique.
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      I go to the dentist every two months, and do everything they suggest, in the way they suggest. Nevertheless, things get gradually worse. I also have multiple teeth being resorbed, a weird thing that the dentist says nobody knows why it happens, and it has nothing to do with dental care. Take a look at some older people. They may not have lost all their teeth, but you can see the crowns and false teeth.