SAMA HOOLE: The conclusion the country drew, across three generations, was that British teeth were weak. Dig up a medieval English churchyard and most of the dead still have theirs.

In 1968 more than a third of adults in England and Wales did not have a single tooth of their own. In parts of the north a full set of extractions was a twenty-first birthday present, and a bride's father paid to have her teeth out before the wedding. It was considered a kindness. The teeth were going to go anyway, everybody's did, so you had the lot out young, the good ones along with the bad, and spared your future husband thirty years of dentist's bills. A girl walked down the aisle in new dentures the way she might now have her hair done. If you are over 60 you probably knew the glass on your nan's bedside table. Nobody thought it strange, because nobody could remember anything else. Britain was getting through about 2lb of sugar a head every week, in tea, jam, biscuits and white bread, and had been since Victoria. Mouths were rotten by twenty. The conclusion the country drew, across three generations, was that British teeth were weak. Dig up a medieval English churchyard and most of the dead still have theirs. Faced with a food destroying a body part, a whole nation kept the food and removed the body part, did it to its daughters as a gift, and called the problem hereditary. We do it with stomachs now.

— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) November 10, 2026

In 1968 more than a third of adults in England and Wales did not have a single tooth of their own. In parts of the north a full set of extractions was a twenty-first birthday present, and a bride's father paid to have her teeth out before the wedding. It was considered a kindness. The teeth were going to go anyway, everybody's did, so you had the lot out young, the good ones along with the bad, and spared your future husband thirty years of dentist's bills. A girl walked down the aisle in new dentures the way she might now have her hair done. If you are over 60 you probably knew the glass on your nan's bedside table. Nobody thought it strange, because nobody could remember anything else. Britain was getting through about 2lb of sugar a head every week, in tea, jam, biscuits and white bread, and had been since Victoria. Mouths were rotten by twenty. The conclusion the country drew, across three generations, was that British teeth were weak. Dig up a medieval English churchyard and most of the dead still have theirs. Faced with a food destroying a body part, a whole nation kept the food and removed the body part, did it to its daughters as a gift, and called the problem hereditary.

We do it with stomachs now.