Claire Conger

Today’s idea is courtesy of a New York Times article on bruxism.

When I come across a photo of a woman from the nineteenth century, my usual thought is that she’s ugly, mannish looking. When I try to watch a period drama, the actors don’t seem right to me—they’re all too good looking!

The article on bruxism posits that teeth grinding is not the disorder your dentist has led you to worry. It’s a behavior that opens the airway, helping you breathe, and activates salivation, neutralizing acid. If you suffer from sleep apnea or acid reflux, grinding might be good!

The author, Kate Murphy, offers a link to a report from Oxford BioScience that reviews, in brief, the evolution of the human face, which they explain flattened as we evolved into a species capable of long distance running! The Oxford authors note that jaws began to shrink with the industrial revolution. This shrinking, they posit, has been caused, not by evolution, but by environment. Our modern, hybridized foods need little effort to chew, so children’s jaws under develop, but, perhaps more important, they write, is a change in our circumstances.

With the industrial revolution, we are no longer outside in clean fresh air, all ages together. Pollution proliferates. Work is indoors where allergens concentrate. Adults rush off to work and children are crowded into “virus sinks” where they catch cold after cold. Noses are chronically stuffy, mouth breathing ensues, and the mouth/tongue position—especially when sleeping!—that would develop an ample jaw is disrupted. That jaw of yesteryear had room for wisdom teeth and a tongue that didn’t choke one while sleeping.

So I’m thinking, that’s it: That’s why today’s actors playing rolls from previous centuries just don’t look right. People have changed.