I don't know about you, but they just destroyed a bit of my fascination for ancient Egypt...
Turns out that 18% of the 3000 mummies discovered so far presented signs of really bad dental problems which, in retrospective, is something that one would expect at those times when Colgate and Pepsodent were not around :)
The autopsies were possible using computer tomography techniques, which allow scientists to better understand mummies (including cause of death) without disturbing them.