It's the increased human life span and our modern diet that is to blame. The bacteria that cause tooth decay feast on sugars and other short-chain carbs.
I don't think the lifespan has too much to do with it. Many primates live as long as we do. In fact, humanity has never really seen an increase in true lifespan. Our average lifespan as calculated, and its persistent rise throughout recent history, is due to an increasing chance of infants living a decent and healthy life. Infants and kids had it bad early in life, and some adults were more likely to die from stupid diseases than those of us today. But those that did survive what we all survive through today, they still lived into their 70s and 80s, even going back thousands of years.
And I suspect their teeth were *mostly* just fine. Again, as it was pointed out earlier, the daily average diet has almost everything to do with it. And even when sugars were involved, the natural diets were far more wholesome, including a lot of natural bacteria that simply grew on everything. The human mouth likely had a biodiversity unlike what we have today, which thanks to the over-processed and overly-protected way of life, has led the bad bacteria to out-compete any other bacteria. And ignoring that difference, sugars consumed in antiquity were far more complex, save for that found in fruit, and many meals likely had a certain quality that helped scrape away any early plaque/tartar, much like those shaped treats we give our pets. Scraping away tartar goes a long way toward preserving teeth.
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