Are modern diets affecting our health?
Many dentists are concerned that their patients are consuming high amounts of sugar-filled drinks, sweetened fruit drinks, and non-nutritious snacks that affect their teeth. These foods generally have little if any nutritional value and over time they can take a toll on teeth.
Speaking to my dentist a few weeks ago, I remember her telling me about how new trends in diets and food intake have shown big changes in the teeth of her patients. She said she regularly asks people what their normal diet consists of. According to her, she said a third of the people that drink coffee regularly have onset decay. She also said that people would eat a plant based diet or that are vegan have more prominent front teeth.
What I found most interesting about this interview was that she said, 'patients who are about the age of 35 usually have a full set of molars, including wisdom teeth.' However, she said that she has noticed much younger patients (17-25 year olds) either don't have any wisdom teeth or they have impacted. This is due to the fact that we have evolved a lot in the last 20 years. Our bodies know that due to these new diets, we do not need all the teeth that we would've before.
Looking back at teeth from our ancestors we can see that we have evolved drastically. As we have evolved we have had less and less teeth, and this is due to the change in diets.
https://vitality-dental.co.uk/impact-modern-diets-oral-health/
'Jaw Bone' mouthpiece
Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen - 1998
The piece fastens with hooks around the ears and inside the mouth. The piece was meant to create the illusion that the models' skin and flesh had been stripped off, leaving the bottom jaw and teeth visible. The original design was inspired by reconstructive surgery pioneered in the first and second world wars.
This mouth piece was warn by three male models during the catwalk show. Their tailored clothes/corsets/skirts/suits were simplistic, pure and precisely cut - juxtaposed with the stark accessories. McQueen got his inspiration from anatomical drawings by the physician Andreas Vesalius - as well as from viewing human remains in the collection of London's Horniman Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.
Wellcome Collection
One of the overarching themes of the permanent gallery Medicine Now is the lived experience of illness. Juxtaposed with objects from clinical medicine, such as pills, anatomical models and teaching aids, are a broad selection of contemporary artworks that invite visitors to consider illness and disease from the viewpoint of patients.
John Isaacs (2003)
Described as a 'huge, amorphous blob of realistic-looking human fat, complete with hideously swollen legs and blotchy irritable sores', is one of the most imposing pieces in the collection. It focuses on the obesity epidemic, which is becoming a huge issue in the developed world.
The piece represents a person, whose features have been hidden by the immense amount of fat. We are unsure what the gender, personal story or defining features are - and where. The fat has engulfed the head, the arms and most of the lower body. It is a symbolism of extreme obesity, in its most abstract yet realistic form.
'You almost never see faces, personal stories, or anything else that identify these people as individuals who are anything other than ‘obese’. All you see is beheaded waistlines and random flashes of disembodied mouths eating hamburgers. Sure, the news has a duty to respect the privacy of the people they are reporting on, which is why these faces are absent in the first place. But a consequence of this is that people become objectified, anonymised, and their personal circumstances and stories are pushed under the surface.'
Isaacs work often revolves around themes such as body and meat aesthetics, focusing in a world of intense gluttony of ready meals, pollution of the land, seas and air, his vision is pessimistic and extreme.
Julian Ma
This photograph shows a solution of antibodies to Streptococcus mutant being applied to the teeth. After all the bacteria on the teeth have been removed with a special mouthwash - chlorhexidene - the antibodies are appleid to prevent return of decay.
This image is interesting to me as it is heavily saturated. I think the images I take need to have the same affect and also show the mouth in its most grotesque way.
1848
1 print : etching with aquatint and watercolour ; platemark 35.1 x 46.2 cm. Lettering The ages of the horse. At two years old, the four front teeth ... and grow longer and rounder in proportion with the other teeth. The ages of the horse. At two years old, the four front teeth ... and grow longer and rounder in proportion with the other teeth.
Looking at the structure change throughout the horses life as it is introduced to different foods shows its evolution to the final set. They are stronger and sturdier.
London, England: 1856-1880
The lower plate is made from ivory, attached to a silver alloy upper plate by coil springs. The lower plate is seemingly older than the top. The front teeth on the upper plate are made of porcelain. Porcelain eventually replaced human teeth and ivory in dentures. The first individual porcelain teeth were made by Guiseppangelo Fonzi - an Italian dentist (1768-1840) - in 1808.
Joseph Fox - (1814) The natural history and deseases, of the human teeth: in two parts illustrated with twenty-three copper plates.
A bar is applied to the teeth for correction in figures 5-7.
These illustrations have given me an idea as to how I think our mouths will need some correction due to the modern diets. From looking at old films and photographs it is clear that no one really needed braces of any sort and all elderly people seem to have a well formed alignment. However, people my age, and especially the younger generation - there had been an increase in dental correction procedures. It would be interesting to explore that due to our mouths changing, we would need maybe something to put into our mouths to help us chew our food??
Hyperdontia is the condition of having an excess number of teeth. The additional teeth are referred to as supernumerary teeth and occur in any part of the dental arch.
Pierre Fauchard - 1728
A dental prosthesis comprising artificial teeth with springs. Tome 2. Planche 36. P. 266 from 'Le chirurgien dentiste, ov traite des dents.'