I was totally astounded to learn than many of my Grandmother's generation (I'm 50) had ALL their teeth pulled out at 18 so they wouldn't get painful toothache! She had it done I believe although she never told me this herself (she had no teeth). Seems like a rather extreme 'solution' to me but I guess if you get really bad toothache that's torture so in a way I guess it makes SOME sense.
Tooth decay was definitely an issue in the in the past. Most of the time, people would actually have those rotten teeth pulled, so that it why if you looks at pictures of people from the past, you might notice that some of them have missing teeth. Also, if you go into the 18th century, the development of fake teeth began to be part of dentistry.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.