How Closely Linked Is Dental Health To Physical Wellness?

The impact of oral health on wellness generally

Think about this. Imagine if I were to suggest to you, that every tooth in your mouth is more valuable than the finest of diamonds. How would you respond to that?

Would you dismiss the idea out of sight?

You could think, well if I had a diamond or two, then I wouldn’t have to worry about any tooth in my mouth. Sell the diamonds and I can submit to any dental surgery necessary, and come out with the perfect smile, and the whitest of teeth.

Ah, but a filling in your tooth is not a natural element. Sure it helps. It preserves your teeth, but it’s still a foreign body in your mouth.

And how about a bridge, or an implant? Still the same story.

The thing is, decay in your mouth is a warning sign, kind of like a weather report, indicating all is not well with the rest of your body. Your teeth are part of your skeletal structure, and decay is more than a hint that parts within your body are turning up their toes.

Let’s be clear about this. I am not talking about people who are unlucky enough to have their mature teeth coming out at angles nature never intended! Undeniably they need help. It’s too late to turn back the clock and fix things before birth, rather than after!

Good teeth will always be in vogue. No matter whether you have the fanciest of clothes, or the finest hairdo, marrying these with beautiful teeth will be a winning combination.

So much of our health begins in our mouth! Moreover, the health of our gums and teeth is directly connected to our heart and immune system.

So we know that eating healthy food is one way to protect our teeth, and yet, even in this day and age we still see alarming evidence of poor dental health.

For a dentist today this must be disheartening. Dealing with tooth decay that is preventable, and fixing up misaligned teeth, is good for business. At the same time, it must surely be soul-destroying.

So compare that to being a dentist in my grandparents’ day, one Weston Price who recognized a huge disconnect between the health of westernized cultures, and how things ought to have been as far as dental health is concerned.

So concerned was he about the rising incidence of dental caries, and misalignment of teeth, and what he saw as degenerating health, he wanted to do something about it.

This was but a few generations ago when the response to decayed teeth was to whip them out and put a nice new set of dentures in place, yes, even for young adults…a good instant appeal perhaps, but not so good for masticating, one would think.

It’s hard to imagine any dentist getting professional pleasure from extracting a tooth, especially in this day and age, but way back in the early nineteen hundreds, this American dentist saw things otherwise. He closed his practice and went on a journey of discovery to investigate the cause of tooth decay

‘In his search for the causes of dental decay and physical degeneration that he observed in his dental practice, he turned from test tubes and microscopes to unstudied evidence among human beings. Dr Price sought the factors responsible for fine teeth among the people who had them- the isolated “primitives.”

Imagine trading the confines of your work practice, to travel the world in search of the truth and realities behind dental decay and physical decline. His belief was, there was an inherent association between nutrition and dental caries, and that ‘deformed dental arches resulting in crowded, crooked teeth and unattractive appearance were merely a sign of physical degeneration, resulting from what he had suspected-nutritional deficiencies.’

This dentist was intent on studying isolated indigenous communities that had adhered to traditional eating practices, ‘sequestered villages in Switzerland, Gaelic communities in the Outer Hebrides, Eskimos and Indians of North America, Melanesian and Polynesian South Sea Islanders, African tribes, Australian Aborigines, New Zealand Maori and the Indians of South America.’

What he discovered supported his initial beliefs about diet and wellness, and the subsequent health of teeth.

‘Wherever he went, Dr Price found that beautiful straight teeth, freedom from decay, stalwart bodies, resistance to disease and fine characters were typical of native peoples on their traditional diets, rich in essential food factors.

‘When Dr Price analyzed the foods used by isolated indigenous peoples he found that they provided at least four times the calcium and other minerals, and at least TEN times the fat-soluble vitamins from animal foods such as butter, fish eggs, shellfish and organ meats.’

Where traditional diets had been adhered to, he found no decay, but also, jawbones wide and able to house emergent teeth, (so no overcrowding!), as well as sound physical well-being.

Where traditional diets had been abandoned by a few, in favor of modern diets, he found worrying signs, crowded teeth, and poorer health as evidenced in stature and posture.

When a mother is pregnant here in our western societies, the onus is on her to eat a healthy diet to promote optimal health for her child. But it takes two people to conceive, so it makes sense that the health of both partners should be as optimal as possible in order to give birth to a healthy child.

Within the indigenous communities, things were very different. He found that these people already practised and understood the need for sound nutrition from both parents up to, and including becoming pregnant!

And this is where even today we may be missing the mark on preparation for responsible parenthood, for within these communities was understood and practised, not only premarital nutrition but space between pregnancies, in order to ensure recovery for the mother, which in turn produced best outcomes for both mother and child.

Add to this, preparation for young adults in order to produce future healthy babies! In order to prepare them for being parents in the future, they including vitamins A and D found only in animal fats.

Wherever he went, Price found that where societies had clung to their holistic dietary lifestyles there was simply no evidence of dental caries, and that included people who didn’t necessarily brush their teeth!

He was particularly impressed with how easily the women gave birth, as well as the makeup and remarkable strength of their bodies, such impressively healthy people free of the degenerative illnesses we have come to accept within our supposedly civilized world.

With an absence of sugar, and flour, pasteurized milk, and all the non-food additives that we have so easily absorbed into our diet, he saw cultures free from the diseases that plague our society.

From his studies, Price came up with some principles of holistic dentistry.

• Eat nutrient-dense whole foods, properly grown and prepared.
• Avoid root canals. If you have root canals that you suspect are causing disease, have them removed by a knowledgeable dentist.
• Avoid mercury (amalgam) fillings. If you have amalgam fillings, have them removed by a holistic dentist who specializes in mercury filling replacement.
• Orthodontics should include measures to widen the palate.
• Extract teeth only when necessary, and then in such a way as to avoid leaving the jaw bone with cavitations, which can be focal points of infection.

This would suggest that much of this is not in practice with today’s dentists generally, and with obstetricians, so the onus is on ourselves to ensure our diet is optimal at all stages in life.

As mature adults, the findings in some instances may be a tad too late. Many of us do have fillings, and misaligned teeth, but all is not lost. What we can do is to embrace the principles of healthy, holistic eating, remove the elements of our diet that we know serve us poorly, and thereby ensure better dental and holistic health outcomes.

For the younger generations, there are some salutary lessons to be learned from all of this. Eating real food, food in its natural state, and not waiting until sickness comes knocking, is one way to ensure health for life.

In doing so, we are taking steps to ensure that our dietary and dental care are truly aligned.

And just as a post-script…I have long despaired of the plight of the Australian aboriginals who once were a slender, tall, healthy and erect group of people. Today they are a neglected group whose physiques and health are in tatters, a direct link to the diet they now follow, through no fault of their own.

This link reflects the unfairness of their treatment.

‘Before permanent European colonization 2 centuries ago, Australian Aborigines were pre-agriculturalist hunter-gatherers who had adapted extraordinarily well to life in a variety of habitats ranging from tropical forests, coastal and Riverina environments, savannah woodlands, and grasslands to harsh, hot and very arid deserts. Colonization had serious negative effects on Aboriginal society, well-being, and health, so much so that Aborigines are now the unhealthiest subgroup in Australian society. The change from active and lean hunter-gatherers to a more sedentary group of people whose diet is now predominantly Westernized has had and continues to have, serious effects on their health, particularly in relation to cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus, which are highly prevalent among Aborigines.’