数十万年来，人类从未刷过牙。如果我完全不刷牙会怎样？

Dan Brodt
As part of my training in archaeology and human osteology, I've looked at a lot of skulls, some thousands of years old. This is why I've always said that if I ever went back in time, one of the things I'd take with me is a good toothbrush.

作为考古学和人类骨骼学培训的一部分，我观察了很多头骨，其中一些有数千年的历史。这就是为什么我一直说，如果我能回到过去，我会带上一把好牙刷。

If you were a prehistoric native American, you wouldn't have to worry much about it, though. The grit from stone grinding their corn generally wore their teeth down faster than cavities could form. (By the way, extreme dental wear is a quick and pretty accurate check used by anthropologists to determine whether a New World skeleton is prehistoric or not. After the introduction of metal-ground corn, no more stone grit, and no more dental wear).

如果你是一个史前的美洲原住民，你就不必太担心这个问题。用石头磨玉米产生的砂粒通常会使他们的牙齿磨损得比蛀牙形成得更快。（顺便说一下，极端的牙齿磨损是人类学家用来判断新世界骨架是史前还是非史前的一种快速且相当准确的检查方法。在引入金属磨玉米后，不再有石头砂粒，也就不再有牙齿磨损了）。

Also, it wasn't unusual to see edentulous (toothless) individuals in their thirties and forties. One professor told me that old women would often eat bone-crushed mice for protein.

此外，在三四十岁的人群中看到无牙（没有牙齿）的人并不罕见。一位教授告诉我，老年妇女经常吃磨碎的老鼠来获取蛋白质。

So what happened to our ancestors’ mouths? If they ate a lot of carbohydrates, like corn, they suffered from either cavities, gingivitis, or both. The dentition of prehistoric hunter gatherers studied by anthropologists had anywhere from 1.5% to fewer than 8% cavities. Once agriculture began, all bets were off, and and the caries (cavities) rate was from about 25% to 87%.

那么我们的祖先的牙齿发生了什么变化呢？如果他们摄入了大量的碳水化合物，比如玉米，他们就会遭受蛀牙、牙龈炎或两者兼有的困扰。人类学家研究的史前狩猎采集者的牙齿蛀牙率在1.5%到不到8%之间。一旦农业开始，情况就完全不同了，蛀牙率大约在25%到87%之间。

I remember looking at a mandible of a 14 - 16 year old male from a 4,000 year old agricultural population. He had an unhealed pea-sized hole below the tooth line. This was from an abscess that he probably died from.

我记得观察过一个来自4000年前农业人口的14至16岁男性的下颌骨。他的牙线下有一个未愈合的豌豆大小的洞。这可能是他死于脓肿的原因。

Think about it. Infection bore a hole through his mandible until the pus spurted out. And he died. Think of the pain and fever he must have gone through while his illness ran its course.

想想看。感染在他的下颌骨上穿了一个洞，直到脓液喷涌而出。然后他死了。想想在他病情发展的过程中，他一定经历了多大的痛苦和发烧。

Yep, I love my dentist.

是的，我爱我的牙医。

Anonymous
For 8 years I didn't brush my teeth out of laziness. I drank carbonated drinks and ate candy like usually (which, as my weight would suggest, was too much). I have at present had three teeth pulled and at least three gaping holes in existing teeth. Beside the holes I also have calcified plague on my teeth which is where bacteria wants to live.

由于懒惰，我8年没有刷牙。我像往常一样喝碳酸饮料和吃糖果（从我的体重来看，这显然是太多了）。目前，我已经拔掉了三颗牙齿，并且现有牙齿上至少有三个大洞。除了这些洞，我的牙齿上还有钙化的牙菌斑，这是细菌喜欢滋生的地方。

The holes don't always hurt. Not always. But the pain they bring (when bacteria gnaw in the nerve) is excruciating.

牙洞并不总是会疼。并非总是如此。但它们带来的疼痛（当细菌侵蚀神经时）是极其剧烈的。

Many animals don't have the same access to sugar and acid as we do. Sugar and acid (carbonated water, juice) really takes a toll on your teeth.

许多动物无法像我们一样获取糖和酸性物质。糖和酸性物质（如碳酸水、果汁）对牙齿的损害很大。

Brush your teeth. I do now twice a day, but it's too late to save them all.

刷牙。我现在每天刷两次，但已经太晚了，无法挽救所有的牙齿。

Amy Chai
They prior generations of humans had bad teeth. Having healthy teeth is a rather modern phenomenon. But not to worry, in times past, you were likely yo be dead at a young age anyway.

早期的人类牙齿状况不佳。拥有健康的牙齿是一个相对现代的现象。但不用担心，在过去，你可能在年轻时就已经去世了。

But often older societies chewed on sticks or did clean the teeth. They just did not have modern dental products.

但通常较古老的社会会咀嚼木棍或清洁牙齿。他们只是没有现代的牙科产品。

I find it super offensive the way people mock those who suffer with bad teeth. Don’t they know that the ability to afford dental care is a huge privilege?

我觉得人们嘲笑那些牙齿不好的人的方式非常冒犯。他们难道不知道能够负担得起牙科护理是一种巨大的特权吗？

The ability to afford toothpaste is another issue. I had to use baking soda on my toothbrush much of the time, because “crest” versus “food” was a real issue for us.

买得起牙膏是另一个问题。很多时候我不得不在牙刷上用小苏打，因为对于我们来说，“牙膏”和“食物”之间是一个真正的选择问题。

Avoiding sugary foods is important to minimize dental problems, too!

避免含糖食物对于减少牙齿问题也很重要！

So keep brushing your teeth and don’t eat too much sugar or your teeth will go bad.

所以继续刷牙，不要吃太多糖，否则你的牙齿会变坏。

Staffan Sandström
You initial premise is incorrect. People may not have had toothbrushes, but they did clean their teeth in various ways. For instance using straw, or polishing it with salt, or use a cloth or use a root that you chewed on to create a sort of brush.

你的初始前提是错误的。人们可能没有牙刷，但他们用各种方式清洁牙齿。例如使用稻草，或用盐抛光，或用布，或咀嚼一种根部来制造一种类似刷子的工具。

Another thing you appear to miss is that refined sugar is a relatively new invention. Before industrialisation you got you sugar from honey as well as fruits and berries, but the amount was far less than for modern man. Their diet also contained more fibre that helped keep the teeth clean.

你似乎忽略的另一件事是，精制糖是一个相对较新的发明。在工业化之前，人们从蜂蜜以及水果和浆果中获取糖分，但数量远少于现代人。他们的饮食中也含有更多的纤维，有助于保持牙齿清洁。

Jorge Lopez
For 100s of 1000s of year humans didn't brush their teeth. But they also didn't eat what we eat today. People ate nuts, fruits, leaves, barks, meat and fish. They never ate sugar, drank Coke or Pepsi. And they constantly chewed on some twigs or bark which naturally cleaned their teeth. Also people didn't live 70 or 80 years. So for the time they lived their teeth was good enough.

千百年来，人类并不刷牙。但他们也不吃我们今天吃的食物。人们吃坚果、水果、树叶、树皮、肉和鱼。他们从不吃糖，也不喝可乐或百事可乐。而且他们经常咀嚼一些树枝或树皮，这些自然清洁了他们的牙齿。此外，人们并不活到70或80岁。所以在他们生活的那个时期，他们的牙齿已经足够好了。

Today's food is high in sugar.

今天的食物含糖量很高。

David A Rosania
The existing replies answer why animals (sometimes) get away without oral hygiene: they die. However, many moderately long-lived animals succumb to decay and especially periodontal disease, which can be fatal in the wild.

现有的回答解释了为什么动物（有时）没有口腔卫生也能生存：它们会死亡。然而，许多寿命中等的动物会因蛀牙，尤其是牙周病而死亡，这在野外可能是致命的。

But asking at what point your mouth starts to take care of itself is like asking at what point your body will start to take care of itself if you stop eating. Good luck with that.

但询问你的嘴巴什么时候开始自我照顾，就像询问如果你停止进食，你的身体什么时候会开始自我照顾一样。祝你好运。

Discontinuing oral hygiene will dramatically raise your risk for decay and periodontal disease. When and how badly these will develop will be determined by your genes, your diet, your overall medical health, whether you smoke, your oral bacterial composition, and your current and past history of fluoride intake. For the average person I'd give you 1-5 years before you regret your decision. And about a week until your breath smells like a disposall.

停止口腔卫生会显著增加你患龋齿和牙周病的风险。这些疾病何时发生以及严重程度将取决于你的基因、饮食、整体健康状况、是否吸烟、口腔细菌组成以及你当前和过去的氟摄入历史。对于普通人来说，我估计你在1到5年内会后悔这个决定。大约一周后，你的口气就会像垃圾处理器一样难闻。

Jan Gilbert
Where a little erroneous knowledge can lead one's beliefs is astonishing - especially about a subject most people know very little. Dentistry is one of the more blindly bought items in the world; perhaps more so than diamonds.

一点点错误的知识就能引导一个人的信念，这令人惊讶——尤其是在大多数人知之甚少的主题上。牙科是世界上较为盲目购买的物品之一；或许比钻石更甚。

How tragic since teeth as so much more important o one's life and health.

多么悲剧啊，因为牙齿对一个人的生活和健康来说如此重要。

There is so much to say so I'll try to encapsulate it. Rest assured that all I say is 100% accurate.

有太多要说的，所以我尽量概括一下。请放心，我所说的一切都是百分之百准确的。

So, the dentist is involved with nutrition all day long, every day of his professional life and rarely does one ever hear the word nutrition in the dental office. That's because the dentist is fully powered by the 20% of his education that dealt with fixing teeth; the technician aspect, the fix-it aspect. The other 80% is what separates the doctor from the technician. That 80% contains the secrets of the human body, why it gets sick and how it stays well. Unfortunately, that 80% is shelved and forgotten once the shingle is hung and practice begins. The entire dental profession is built solely on the 20% making it a mostly underserving, narrow-scoped profession. You may be paying doctor's fees but only getting technician treatment.

所以，牙医在他的职业生涯中每天都与营养打交道，但在牙科诊所里却很少听到“营养”这个词。这是因为牙医完全依赖于他教育中20%的内容，即修复牙齿的技术方面，而忽略了另外80%的内容。这80%的内容是区分医生与技术员的关键，它包含了人体的奥秘、为什么会生病以及如何保持健康。不幸的是，一旦挂牌开业，这80%的内容就被搁置和遗忘了。整个牙科行业仅建立在20%的基础上，使其成为一个服务不足、视野狭窄的职业。你可能支付了医生的费用，但得到的却是技术员的治疗。

And before I forget, the fact that you think losing your molars was a blessing shows how very wrongminded you are. They are the foundation of good health. The anterior teeth are made for esthetics, incising things and supporting your lips and cheeks.

在我忘记之前，你认为失去臼齿是件好事，这表明你的想法是多么错误。它们是健康的基础。前牙是为了美观、切割食物以及支撑嘴唇和脸颊而存在的。

Without molars, chewing capacity is drastically reduced so you cannot chew your food as well and so swallow larger, undigested pieces than you should, placing a greater stress and strain on your digestive system.

没有臼齿，咀嚼能力会大幅下降，因此你无法很好地咀嚼食物，从而吞下比应该更大的未消化食物块，这会给你的消化系统带来更大的压力和负担。

Without molars, your TMJ (temporomandibular joint - one on each side in front of your ears and more complicated than a knee and, to make it more complicated, both are attached by way of the mandible, or lower jaw bone), your entire body is thrown off balance and symptoms related to TMJ dysfunction are varied and widespread and often quite painful and debilitating. That you lost them is certainly not a blessing.

如果没有臼齿，你的颞下颌关节（位于每只耳朵前方，比膝盖更复杂，而且更复杂的是，两者都通过下颌骨或下颚骨连接），你的整个身体都会失去平衡，与颞下颌关节功能障碍相关的症状多种多样且广泛，通常非常痛苦且使人衰弱。失去它们绝对不是一件幸事。

That women still find you attractive is likely debatable and/or demonstrates the level of the bar women nowadays use to sext from men. With the infections in your mouth, you either have blatant halitosis or bad breath with a hint of mint (if you have fallen for the mouthrinse advertisements). Soon, the rest of your body will suffer. As they say: Being old can be tough but being old without teeth is a nightmare.

女性仍然觉得你有吸引力这一点可能是有争议的，或者这表明了当今女性在选择男性时所使用的标准。由于你口腔中的感染，你要么有明显的口臭，要么是带有薄荷味的口气（如果你已经中了漱口水的广告的招）。很快，你身体的其他部分也会受到影响。正如人们所说：变老可能很艰难，但没有牙齿的老年生活是一场噩梦。

Caries and periodontal disease are separate diseases. Most often, we find patients present with a lot of one or the other; infrequently with a lot of both. The patient who has a lot of both is definitely not a well person. Body systems are wildly malfunctioning to allow such destruction. When you see the hardest structure in the body (tooth enamel) turn into a soft, smelly, decayed mass, you have to realize that something is terribly wrong.

龋齿和牙周病是两种不同的疾病。大多数情况下，我们发现患者会表现出其中一种疾病的严重症状；而很少同时表现出两种疾病的严重症状。同时患有这两种严重疾病的患者显然健康状况不佳。身体系统严重失调才会导致如此严重的破坏。当你看到人体中最坚硬的结构（牙釉质）变成柔软、发臭、腐烂的物质时，你必须意识到某些地方出现了严重问题。

If you woke up with a hole in your leg, you'd be alarmed. A hole in your tooth should sound the same alarm bells. Unfortunately, dentists are deaf to the alarms and see no more than a hole in a tooth that has to be filled. That response is the response of a technician. The response of a doctor is to realize the glaring signal such destruction is highlighting. The dentist who does not respond at the doctor level is guilty - very guilty.

如果你醒来发现腿上有个洞，你会感到惊慌。牙齿上的洞也应该引起同样的警觉。不幸的是，牙医对这些警报充耳不闻，只看到一个需要填补的牙洞。这种反应是技术员的反应。医生的反应是意识到这种破坏所凸显的明显信号。没有以医生水平做出反应的牙医是有罪的——非常严重的罪。

Periodontal disease is the destruction of the supporting structures of the teeth (bone and gums). It takes a long time for such destruction to become entrenched and serious but usually begins as a teenager. By the time one is 35 years old, it has been in your mouth steadily getting worse for 20 years; and your dentist never told you much except to brush your teeth. Obviously, he never gave you sufficient instruction because you have to have you teeth repeatedly cleaned. There is a way to easily keep your teeth clean ALL THE TIME so when you get up in the morning and rub your tongue over your teeth, they feel smooth, clean and shiny (though you can't really feel 'shiny').

牙周病是牙齿支持结构（骨骼和牙龈）的破坏。这种破坏需要很长时间才能变得根深蒂固和严重，但通常从青少年时期开始。到了35岁时，它已经在你的口腔中持续恶化20年；而你的牙医除了让你刷牙外，从未告诉你太多。显然，他从未给予你足够的指导，因为你不得不反复清洁牙齿。有一种方法可以轻松地让你的牙齿始终保持清洁，这样当你早上起床并用舌头摩擦牙齿时，它们会感觉光滑、干净且有光泽（尽管你无法真正感觉到“光泽”）。

Implants are not the best answer because they will be attacked as were your natural teeth and will also take some time before they fail. Of course, that time lag will allow you to forget that the dentist never told you how to prevent the destruction and you'll never connect implant failure with lack of proper care.

种植牙并不是最佳选择，因为它们会像你的天然牙齿一样受到攻击，并且也会在一段时间后失效。当然，这段时间的延迟会让你忘记牙医从未告诉过你如何预防破坏，你也不会将种植牙的失败与缺乏适当护理联系起来。

In general, people exchange periodontitis for periimplantitis (a professional, inside secret no one wants to discuss).

一般来说，人们用牙周炎换取种植体周围炎（这是一个专业人士内部不愿讨论的秘密）。

University students were studied and those who stopped brushing their teeth had gingivitis (inflammation of the gums) within 10 days.

对大学生进行了研究，那些停止刷牙的人在10天内患上了牙龈炎（牙龈发炎）。

There is tons more to be told but not here.

还有更多要说的，但不在这里。

Samuel Weisz
Stopping your brushing habit may not lead you to eventual tooth loss. Believe it or not the patients in my office that have the least amount of cavities are not always the ones who have the best brushing habits. Most people don't realize that the modern diet filled with sugars and complex carbohydrates are the main cause of tooth loss. This by no means is a good reason to stop your habit of brushing and flossing. I will explain further.

停止刷牙的习惯可能不会导致你最终失去牙齿。信不信由你，我诊所里蛀牙最少的患者并不总是那些刷牙习惯最好的人。大多数人没有意识到，现代饮食中充满糖和复杂碳水化合物是导致牙齿脱落的主要原因。这绝不是停止刷牙和使用牙线的好理由。我会进一步解释。

I think the real question being asked is are you golong lose all your teeth if you stop brushing. Unfortunately Based on clinical research the short answer is probably. There are two ways you could potentially lose your teeth. Most laypeople are most focused on cavities but the truth is gum disease or periodontal disease causes the majority of tooth loss. The cause for both gum disease and cavities are varying groups of bacteria. if one were to stop brushing all together they would be leaving a large accumulation of cavity causing and gum disease causing bacteria in their mouth. Over time these bacteria would change the pH of the mouth creating a more acidic environment where more and more of these types of teeth harming bacteria would continue to flourish. Now most peoples teeth would be ripe for massive amounts of dental decay thus causing to loss. There are many populations that are much more resistant to the types of bacteria that cause cavities. Often times these are the exact populations that are very prone to gum disease through a different strain of bacteria. So in short if you stop brushing your teeth they would most likely succumb to gum disease or rot from the outside in from cavities.

我认为真正的问题是，如果你停止刷牙，你是否会失去所有的牙齿。不幸的是，根据临床研究，简短的回答可能是的。有两种方式可能会导致你失去牙齿。大多数外行人最关注的是蛀牙，但事实是牙龈疾病或牙周病是导致牙齿脱落的主要原因。牙龈疾病和蛀牙的原因是不同的细菌群。如果一个人完全停止刷牙，他们的口腔中会积累大量导致蛀牙和牙龈疾病的细菌。随着时间的推移，这些细菌会改变口腔的pH值，创造一个更酸性的环境，在这种环境中，越来越多这种损害牙齿的细菌会继续繁殖。现在，大多数人的牙齿将面临大量蛀牙的风险，从而导致牙齿脱落。有许多人群对导致蛀牙的细菌更具抵抗力。通常，这些人群恰恰更容易通过另一种细菌株患上牙龈疾病。简而言之，如果你停止刷牙，你的牙齿很可能会因为牙龈疾病或蛀牙而从外向内腐烂。

If you were going to attempt of this experiment I would recommend eating a diet very low in sugars and complex carbohydrates and more importantly a diet very high and fermented foods the natural probiotics that will help keep a higher more basic pH in your mouth. Thus outcompeting the acid loving cavity causing bacteria. You may be able to breed just the right environment in your Petrie dish we call the mouth to stave off loss of teeth. But scrubbing twice daily will certainly be very helpful in the process.

如果你打算尝试这个实验，我建议你采用非常低糖和低复合碳水化合物的饮食，更重要的是，采用非常高发酵食品的饮食，这些天然益生菌有助于保持口腔中较高的碱性pH值。从而胜过那些喜欢酸性环境、导致蛀牙的细菌。你可能能够在被称为口腔的培养皿中培育出恰到好处的环境，以延缓牙齿的脱落。但每天刷两次牙在这个过程中肯定会非常有帮助。

Mr. Testtubehead
Brushing stimulates saliva production. Saliva is essential for cleaning your mouth and it has antimicrobial properties. You can brush with nothing and your mouth will still get full of saliva and it will clean your teeth.

刷牙可以刺激唾液分泌。唾液对于清洁口腔至关重要，并且具有抗菌特性。即使不使用牙膏刷牙，口腔中仍然会充满唾液，它能够清洁牙齿。

Early in human development the diet had no sugars in it that didn't come at a natural level. Apples and grapes and other fruit we have bread until they are producing sugar at far higher rates in many cases than the original.

在人类发展的早期，饮食中的糖分仅来自天然水平。苹果、葡萄和其他水果经过培育后，在许多情况下其糖分产量远高于原始品种。

Eating soft food that is both acidic like soda pop and high sugar like Twinkies is a guarantee to fill your mouth with teeth damaging substances. Early diets required much more mastication which would stimulate more saliva production

食用像汽水这样酸性且像Twinkies这样高糖的软食，必定会让你的口腔充满损害牙齿的物质。早期的饮食需要更多的咀嚼，这会刺激更多的唾液分泌。

Also, all civilizations we have ever seen clean their teeth. Just not with toothpaste and toothbrush. They use sharp and sticks and Emery boards to polish and take great care in their dental hygiene for the most part. If we find tools dating hundreds of thousands of years old, up to a few million you can bet your bottom dollar humans were cleaning their teeth

此外，我们所见过的所有文明都有清洁牙齿的习惯。只是他们不使用牙膏和牙刷。他们使用尖锐的棍子和砂纸来打磨牙齿，并且大部分都非常注重牙齿卫生。如果我们发现几十万年前甚至几百万年前的工具，你可以肯定人类当时就在清洁牙齿。

Also remember that a set of teeth didn't have to last 80 years back then. Even today the average lifespan of the Afghan male is 45.

还要记住，那时候一套牙齿不需要用80年。即使在今天，阿富汗男性的平均寿命也只有45岁。

You become toothless. Even with brushing some people will just become toothless. It's going to depend on whether you run a slightly acid mouse or slightly basic mouth. I'm 59 years old and I have no cavities and while I brush my teeth I've never been a good flosser. But my mouth is slightly basic which stops a lot of tooth decay, but instead I do get gum problems. A dentist told me this once.

你会变得没有牙齿。即使刷牙，有些人也还是会变得没有牙齿。这取决于你的口腔是稍微酸性还是稍微碱性。我59岁了，没有蛀牙，虽然我刷牙，但我从来不是一个好的牙线使用者。但我的口腔是稍微碱性的，这阻止了很多蛀牙，但我确实有牙龈问题。一位牙医曾经告诉我这一点。

My sisters all had multiple cavities and teeth removed. They were heavy smokers and the last of my oldest was an invalid from epilepsy and had massive tooth problems because of the drugs and inability to brush so she had to have all her teeth surgically extracted

我的姐妹们都有多个蛀牙并且拔了牙。她们都是重度吸烟者，而我最大的姐姐因为癫痫而残疾，由于药物和无法刷牙，她出现了严重的牙齿问题，因此不得不通过手术拔掉所有牙齿。

There is no human society that didn't brush their teeth in some way. But the toothbrush itself wasn't necessarily the implement. Twigs and sticks and things that are like Emery boards for teeth are common. This is the hilarious part of the CIA trying to assassinate an African dictator once in the 1960s they put poisoned toothpaste in his bathroom, despite the fact that Africans didn't use toothbrush and toothpaste they use these cleaning sticks.

没有任何人类社会不以某种方式刷牙。但牙刷本身并不一定是工具。树枝、木棍以及类似指甲锉的东西很常见。这是中情局在20世纪60年代试图暗杀一位非洲独裁者时的搞笑部分，他们在他的浴室里放了有毒的牙膏，尽管非洲人并不使用牙刷和牙膏，而是使用这些清洁棒。

One of the reasons toothpaste works is it stimulates saliva into your mouth. And saliva is great in cleaning your mouth and getting rid of dental bacteria. This is why sugar-free gum is recommended for people with gum disease or other mouth problems because the sugar Xylitol they use stimulate saliva Galore, but is inedible to the bacteria in your mouth. I suffer from dry mouth and use a CPAP machine. You can get Xylitol tablets that you push between your cheek and gum and they sit there as a sugar pill and stimulate saliva. So now I wake up in the morning with a cup full of mucus in my mouth. Breath smells fresh though!

牙膏之所以有效，其中一个原因是它能刺激口腔分泌唾液。唾液在清洁口腔和去除牙菌方面非常有效。这就是为什么建议患有牙龈疾病或其他口腔问题的人使用无糖口香糖，因为它们使用的木糖醇能大量刺激唾液分泌，但对口腔中的细菌却不可食用。我患有口干症并使用CPAP机器。你可以获得木糖醇片，将其推入脸颊和牙龈之间，它们就像糖丸一样停留在那里并刺激唾液分泌。所以现在我早上醒来时，嘴里会有一口黏液。不过，口气闻起来很清新！

Modern food does not stimulate mastication as much and so the saliva production suffers. Imagine eating a Twinkie and drinking a Coca-Cola and then not brushing your teeth. You've packed the spaces in your mouth with a sugary sponge and dust it and highly sugar and acidic juice so I can sit in contact with your teeth and gum margins all day.

现代食物对咀嚼的刺激较少，因此唾液分泌受到影响。想象一下，吃一个Twinkie蛋糕并喝一杯可口可乐，然后不刷牙。你会在口腔中塞满含糖的海绵，并撒上高糖和酸性果汁，这样它们可以整天与你的牙齿和牙龈边缘接触。

Contrast this to a Caribbean boy chewing on a chunk of sugarcane. Lots of mastication so the sugar becomes less of a problem.

这与一个加勒比男孩嚼着一块甘蔗形成对比。需要大量咀嚼，因此糖分的问题就不那么严重了。

Ultimately though people a few thousand years ago didn't need to worry as much about their teeth falling out because the only live to 40 anyway. You have to make him last almost twice as long. And there's lots of evidence if you don't, you're not going to reach 80 as well

不过，几千年前的人们并不需要太担心牙齿脱落的问题，因为他们通常只能活到40岁左右。而现在，你必须让牙齿的寿命几乎延长一倍。而且有大量证据表明，如果你不这么做，你也无法活到80岁。

J Aho
First, hundreds of thousands of years ago, humans ate primarily meat (often raw) and a few foraged berries and starchy plant stems and roots. Meat is very low in carbohydrates, which are the primary nutrients for oral bacteria that can lead to dental carries, gum disease, tooth loss, and halitosis. The tough, uncooked meat also acted as a mechanical plaque, tartar, and bacteria remover as it was chewed. As well, the average lifespan of very ancient humans was on the order of 25 years or so, which meant that the lack of formal dental hygiene often did not have the time to manifest itself in terms of major dexerious effects.

首先，数十万年前，人类主要食用肉类（通常是生的）和一些采集的浆果及淀粉质植物茎和根。肉类的碳水化合物含量非常低，而碳水化合物是导致龋齿、牙龈疾病、牙齿脱落和口臭的口腔细菌的主要营养来源。坚韧的生肉在咀嚼时也起到了机械去除牙菌斑、牙垢和细菌的作用。此外，非常古老的人类的平均寿命大约在25岁左右，这意味着缺乏正式的牙齿卫生通常没有时间表现为重大的有害影响。

In early historic times, up until the Renaissance, while toothbrushes had not been invented, people did clean their teeth in various ways. Chewing on wood, bamboo, or other fibrous plant material was common. Also, mixtures of spices, vinegar, saltpeter, and other mildly granular, hard substances were used to remove tartar and unpleasant odor. Some people used cloth scraps or a bit of vinegar-soaked sponge to rub particles of food from their teeth. Finally, wood or bone splinters were used as toothpicks, and mouth-rinses of water or vinegar were common.

在早期的历史时期，直到文艺复兴时期，虽然牙刷尚未发明，但人们确实以各种方式清洁牙齿。咀嚼木头、竹子或其他纤维植物材料是常见的做法。此外，人们还使用香料、醋、硝石和其他轻微颗粒状、坚硬的物质混合物来去除牙垢和异味。有些人使用布片或一点浸泡过醋的海绵来擦拭牙齿上的食物残渣。最后，木头或骨头碎片被用作牙签，而用水或醋漱口也很常见。

The consequences of not regularly brushing teeth every day range from bad breath, tooth scum build up, and sensitive gums to dental carries, tooth loss and breakage, severe gum receding and gum disease, root and pulp abcesses, all the way up to heart-valve vegetative damage and an increased chance of head and neck cancers.

不每天定期刷牙的后果包括口臭、牙垢堆积、牙龈敏感，到龋齿、牙齿脱落和断裂、严重的牙龈退缩和牙龈疾病、牙根和牙髓脓肿，甚至可能导致心脏瓣膜病变以及增加头颈部癌症的风险。