The Significance of Cusps

It has been argued that the prolonged retention of cusps in the human dentition is a relatively recent aberration due to the negligible abrasiveness of modern diets and that to achieve maximum efficiency and freedom from disease human teeth should be worn down as they are in many herbivorous mammals. Here we critically review the evidence that has been put forward to support this idea and, after discussing the design of occlusal surfaces in relation to the wide variety of mammalian diets, we conclude that cusps are adaptations for breaking food with specific physical properties.