According to Peter Lucas of George Washington University, while presenting a paper at the AAAS Meeting in Washington, US, chopping of vegetables to bite size pieces and cooking them to into mashed textures may be one of the reasons that our teeth are growing crooked and badly formed. Thus congenital bad shaped teeth may be a direct result of evolution than anything else.
Human teeth are in bad shape, when compared with teeth of the other animals, especially those that eat flesh. If heredity and evolution have played a role in influencing the dental pattern of the human species, it is the food habits of today that is causing more damage. Most people who seek dental advice for malformed dental structure are often those who avoid eating fibers and raw vegetables. These require much munching and tearing and thus shape our teeth.In keeping with anthropologist Lucas, who has authored Dental Function Morphology: How Teeth Work, on an average the body part that requires most surgeries, is the tooth. Our teeth are maloccluded, or mismatched with that of our ancesters. This is because of our faulty food habits. We have developed our cooking process in direct contrast to what our first ancestors had eaten. It is this fact that had lead to people having so much of gum and periodontal problems, as food particles remain inside our mouth because of their texture.
Peter Lucas where he had explored in detail the relationship between food and teeth structure.
http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2005/0218gorillateeth.shtml
