A few slants on crooked teeth

Don't Mess with Mother Nature!

It would seem that crooked teeth are a product of modern man. If one was to study all the skulls dated 250 years ago or older, you would be hard pressed to find one case in a thousand of crowded teeth. It would also be hard to find decay and evidence of periodontal disease.

What might have caused the human race to suddenly develop crooked teeth ? One of the following three hypotheses that might explain how this happened.

Theory number one suggests that the Industrial Revolution which began in Britain around 1750 could be responsible . The concept is that the air was fouled by the output of the refineries and this poor quality air led to constriction of the airways which in turn led to misshapen jaws and crooked teeth. This theory could partially be evidenced by industrial countries displaying a greater percentage of crowded teeth than non industrialized companies. But there is probably more to it.

What might go along with the industrial revolution’s negative impact on the smile is theory number two ..... processing of food especially sugar. A dentist with a camera named Weston Price took photos of populations that fed on their indigenous foods on many continents in the 1930’s . He returned later to take pictures of the next generation feeding on processed foods such as white flour and refined sugar. His pictures show an evolution of decay and crooked teeth showing up in the next generation.

The last theory of what causes crooked teeth is particularly reflective of the idea that one should not mess with Mother Nature.

"Dummies" or "Pacifiers" have been around since ancient times. However, the baby bottle got its’ start in France around the mid 1700s. As it has proven impossible to mimic the human breast, the bottle nipples have produced a different type of swallow to express milk from bottles. Babies must use a suction action to get milk from a bottle. The baby must make a negative pressure to pull milk from the bottle. This is the opposite from the baby on a human breast. Natural breastfeeding requires the baby’s tongue to roll in the roof of the mouth and express milk from the mother. There is no real suction action in natural breastfeeding.

The baby on the bottle can carry this suction action of swallowing into his adult life. This bad type of swallow leads to narrowing the upper arch, narrowing of the airway, and crowded teeth. In addition, children with pacifiers and bottles are more likely to have otitis media (ear aches) malocclusions (bad bites), and less attractive faces.

So the old expression about messing with Mother Nature comes to light as we look at the cause of crooked teeth.

Ruth