Lendon H. Smith, MD
You are supposed to look into the horse's mouth, aren't you, before you buy? Apparently the teeth can give away the general state of health. It must be the same with humans. I would suggest that humans should look in each others' mouths before they get married and decide to have children. I now believe that crowded teeth, cavities, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome and other oral problems are just another clue that people are falling apart. It is rare to find caries-free humans nowadays.
Years ago I became acquainted with the work of Weston Price, D.D.S. I assume you all have his classic, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. He went around the world in the 1930s examining primitive people's teeth. He was looking for the cause of tooth decay. But he found out more than he was looking for. Not only did he discover that most of these people had no cavities, but also they had good dental arch, -- a round, full jaw and no crowding.
Then he noticed that the people with these extraordinary (to us) teeth had beautiful bodies also. The men had broad, square shoulders, tapering waists, straight legs; they were good looking and well-proportioned. The women were the ideal, with an adequate pelvis for childbearing, narrower shoulders, and were otherwise well put together. These primitives were good looking people, no matter where they lived, as long as they stuck with their hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Whom do we blame? Was it our mothers who had some negative thoughts about that baby growing inside? How about our government that allows nutrient-deficient foods to be placed on the grocer's shelves? Certainly our doctors must share some of the blame as they have not been screaming about bad food and pollution until recently. Why don't the dentists get on a new kick instead of the "brush your teeth and see your dentist twice a year" routine? Dentists are not getting to the root cause of dental caries and arch deformities. They should be at the forefront of prophylactic care. They only seem to be able to correct the damage after the fact. We know it is nutrition from even before conception.
Skulls of our ancestors who lived hundreds of thousands of years ago reveal teeth that are tough and strong. How do we get back to those days? Just taking supplements is not enough. We must control pollution and the sad things that are being done to our topsoil.
Message: When you see a patient with a musculoskeletal complaint, get a look inside the oral cavity. There are clues in there that you may not have realized. The mouth is a reflection of the whole body. If the mouth is deformed, the body has already been affected. I mentioned before that crowded lower front teeth mean that the person was alkaline when those teeth were being formed; the alkalinity prevented the calcium and magnesium from being soluble enough to allow for optimal jaw formation. Get every mother to nurse her baby for months if not at least two years. It is unfortunate that chiropractors get their patients so late in life. Last month in the Dynamic Chiropractic, an article indicated that newborn babies should be assessed by a chiropractor. I applaud that suggestion. "As the twig is bent, so grows the tree."
Lendon Smith, M.D.
Portland, Oregon
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