10-year-olds were not maxillary protrusive, rather, most had retrusive maxillas; the conclusions regarding relative maxillary skeletal retrusion in the A/P dimension were based upon two pre-treatment cephalometric angular values: 1.) SNA (Steiner) angles-less than 81 degrees; and 2.) the distance of A-point from Nasion perpendicular (less than 0mm). When utilizing McNamara’s A-point to N-perpendicular cephalo-metric angular measurement, pre-Industrial , prehistoric and pre-West-ernized skulls are somewhat maxil-lary protrusive (Fig. 8), these data seem to be at least circumstantially supportive of the hypothesis that human malocclusion is a relatively recent phenomenon since techno-logical advances stemming from the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe.Furthermore, because they were largely developed from early 20th-century ( post-Industrial ) databases, currently used orthodon-tic cephalometric normative values should now be revised as they likely do not represent anthropologically-accurate ideals for true genomic craniofacial growth potential. As it becomes increasingly clear that malocclusion is a predisposing factor for certain chronic systemic diseases 27 that were likely never suffered by our ancestors (e.g., apnea, hypertension, CVD, etc.), existing criteria for determining orthodontic success (e.g., well-aligned and straight teeth, pathology-free and esthetically-positioned jaw relation-ship, etc.) should also include factors related to long-term systemic health (e.g., adequate posterior airway volume) (Figs. 8, 9, 10 & 11). This framework holds significant implications to currently accepted theories about malocclusion etiol-ogy, clinical diagnostic criteria, treatment option selections and ultimate orthodontic treatment success; these and other EOM-related issues will be addressed in a proposed follow-up to this paper. Summary & Conclusions For millions of years, our pre-human and anatomically modern human ancestors evolved a mastica-tory apparatus (MA) that was best adapted to foods that required prolonged and forceful chewing of varied Paleolithic-type diets (e.g., wild whole grains, fibrous fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, raw and cooked meats and fish, etc.). Constantly changing feeding envi-ronments over the several millions of years time-span of human evolution are known to have been an extreme challenge to our early human ances-tors. As the various pre-human (hominid) species evolved away from their common ancestor with the modern chimpanzee, an MA pheno-type that was best adapted to Pale-olithic-type diets offered the best chance for surviving and reproducing (i.e., becoming our ancestors). In what is now called the Agricultural Revolution , also called the Neolithic Revolution , sometime around the 10-century B.C.E. (Before Common Era) in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East (what is now Turkey), mankind began a gradual shift to becoming primarily sedentary agri-culturists from having been nomadic hunter-gatherer/foragers (H-G/F’s) for nearly their entire existence. When viewed from an evolution-ary timescale perspective, the Agricul-tural Revolution represented a relatively abrupt change in mankind’s means of acquiring food for themselves. This and subsequent changes in the human diet have been accompanied by an increased incidence of a myriad of chronic and non-communicable systemic diseases (CNCD’s) like obesity, Type 2 diabetes, CVD and some cancers. 28 Likewise, modern 38 November/December 2011 JAOS
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society November-December 2011: Page 38
