I think the ability to force ourselves to sit in a dentist’s chair for an hour is what separates us from animals.
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You remind me of something that I’ve always thought. Why do we need dentist? Like from the time we have teeth we need to visit the dentist like twice a year. I think there’s something wrong with human evolution. Doctors I can understand… we get sick, we go to the doctor. But going to the dentist is like just for normal maintenance of a key body system. Why haven’t we evolved so that we don’t need outside expertise to maintain our teeth?
Do we really need dentists to maintain our teeth? I doubt we’d need to go very often if we brushed and flossed 3 times a day.
We do a lot of maintenance for our bodies. For example, most of us exercise… the analogous question is “Why haven’t we evolved to suit our sedentary lifestyle?”
The other answer is that evolution is slow and we keep changing the environment too often for any adaptations to stick.
Yes, I think our lethargic sedentary lifestyles are largely post-industrial, while evolution takes minimum thousands of years to make noticeable changes (although why have the Japanese increased in height 3 to 5 inches since WWII!?!). Furthermore, technology and social welfare systems have helped to protect less-than-fit individuals from being weeded out of the gene pool as they would in a true “state of nature.”
Japanese height increases (and American girth!) is due to changing eating habits, not evolution… I think you’ll have to look very hard for any signs of evolution of humans… the fossil evidence is sparse and that seems to be all that we have. I don’t think you can even look at a painting from, say, the 1400′s and point out evolutionary differences.
May I remind you that my cat actually allows me (reluctantly) to brush her teeth every night? Well, the nights I remember anyway. (And its only a few seconds.)
July 7th, 2005 at 4:12 pm
You remind me of something that I’ve always thought. Why do we need dentist? Like from the time we have teeth we need to visit the dentist like twice a year. I think there’s something wrong with human evolution. Doctors I can understand… we get sick, we go to the doctor. But going to the dentist is like just for normal maintenance of a key body system. Why haven’t we evolved so that we don’t need outside expertise to maintain our teeth?
July 7th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
Do we really need dentists to maintain our teeth? I doubt we’d need to go very often if we brushed and flossed 3 times a day.
We do a lot of maintenance for our bodies. For example, most of us exercise… the analogous question is “Why haven’t we evolved to suit our sedentary lifestyle?”
The other answer is that evolution is slow and we keep changing the environment too often for any adaptations to stick.
Br. Brevity out.
July 8th, 2005 at 5:08 am
Yes, I think our lethargic sedentary lifestyles are largely post-industrial, while evolution takes minimum thousands of years to make noticeable changes (although why have the Japanese increased in height 3 to 5 inches since WWII!?!). Furthermore, technology and social welfare systems have helped to protect less-than-fit individuals from being weeded out of the gene pool as they would in a true “state of nature.”
July 8th, 2005 at 8:29 am
Japanese height increases (and American girth!) is due to changing eating habits, not evolution… I think you’ll have to look very hard for any signs of evolution of humans… the fossil evidence is sparse and that seems to be all that we have. I don’t think you can even look at a painting from, say, the 1400′s and point out evolutionary differences.
July 9th, 2005 at 11:58 pm
May I remind you that my cat actually allows me (reluctantly) to brush her teeth every night? Well, the nights I remember anyway. (And its only a few seconds.)
July 10th, 2005 at 5:28 am
But, does it let you remove plaque buildup with a needle-like instrument?