DENTAL DECAY

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1933, Page 14

DENTAL DECAY

INFLUENCE OF DIET VALUABLE RESEARCH WORK. RETURN TO PRIMITIVE FOOD. Why should dental decay exist in rampant form among the peoples of modem civilisations ? This is a question which of late has been investigated along new lines by Dr. Weston A. Price, perhaps the most notable dental research . worker in the United States. It is common knowledge that the remains of primitive peoples generally reveal perfectly preserved teeth, while among modem communities it is rare to find a single set of teeth without evidence of dental decay. Dr. Price’s researches, which, hi one form or another, have covered almost the entire world, have satisfied him that diet provides the solution of the problem of dental decay.

Clinical experiments carried out in the United States led Dr. Price to believe that a return to more primitive foods would result in improved dental health. His experiments suggested that modem foods were lacking in calcium and phosphorus. It was known that calcium was needed to build up teeth, but Dr. Price proved that the presence of phosphorus in the saliva destroyed the microbes and organisms which cause dental decay. Some interesting experiments were carried out on a group of children at one of his clinics. All had been fed on modem foods and all were suffering from rampant dental decay. Dr. Price placed them on a special diet, consisting largely of butter, milk, cream, cheese, fish, green vegetables, whole wheat bread—all foods known to contain large proportions of calcium and phosphorus —and allowed them hardly any meat. Within six weeks, not only was the dental decay arrested, but the affected teeth of the children had started to repair themselves.

ISOLATED COMMUNITIES.

Dr. Price held that this proved that when ample calcium and phosphorus were provided, the chemicals were taken from the blood to reinforce the teeth. Conversely, when there was a deficiency of calcium and phosphorus, the blood drew the chemicals from the teeth, leaving the teeth poorer in quality and easily subject to attack. Recently Dr. Price has been carrying out interesting field research work in Switzerland. He decided to test his

theories in regard to primitive and modern food, and, in order to do so, he sought a locality in some civilised country where the inhabitants had not as yet been brought into, close touch with civilisation. He found such localities in some of the mountain valleys of Switzerland, where little communities live to-day almost exactly as their ancestors did centuries ago. Detailed investigations were carried out by Dr. Price in the Loetschental Valley, where a community of about 2000, living in small villages, have for years been a world unto themselves. The people are noted for their magnificent physique, and it was soon discovered that their dental health matched their high standard of general health. Dental cavities among the children were almost non-existent, and Dr. Price had no hesitation in attributing this immunity from decay to the primitive diet still enjoyed in the valley—slices of whole rye bread, eaten with large pieces of the cheese made in summer from the milk of cows feeding on pastures near the glaciers, 'and, for drink, the fresh milk of goats or cows. Meat was eaten only about once a week.

CONTRAST IN VILLAGES.

In another locality the little mountain village of Ayer also showed a high immunity to tooth decay. Only 2.3 of each hundred children’s teeth examined were found' ever to have been attacked, and here, too, the people were living on rye and dairy products. About an hour’s walk from Ayer was the yillage of Vissoie, to which a roadway had been extended and in which modern foods had been available for some time. Here in each 100 children’s teeth examined, the number attacked with decay was 20.2. From the isolated valleys, Dr. Price travelled the comparatively short distance to the famous Swiss health resort, St Moritz. Here children are treated in clinics provided with all the modern conveniences of science and industry. However, they can be provided with modem nutrition, consisting of an abundance of white flour products, marmalades, jams, canned vegetables and confections. Dr. Price studied some children whose parents had retained their primitive method of food selection, and there was only very slight evidence of dental decay. However, in a general study, carried out in the schools, it was found that 29.8 per cent, of the teeth of children between the ages of 8 and 15 had been attacked by dental caries. The majority of the children were living on a modem diet.

RESULTS OF CITY LIFE,

On several occasions in the isolated valleys Dr. Price had the experience of examining a young man or woman and finding that at some period decay had been rampant, bad auddenty ©owed.

When he asked such people, if they had gone out of the mountains and at what age, they generally said at 18 or 20 they went to a city and stayed a year or two. They stated they had never had a decayed tooth before they'.wfint or since their return, but they. .had lost teeth in the short period spent away from home and their accustomed diet. . Dr. Price also has carried out similar investigations in the Outer Orkneys, off the coast of Scotland. Here he found that the isolated communities had very little milk, but lived largely on a fish diet. This supplied ample' phosphorus, and as a result there was hardly. any dental decay. A group of children was examined, and only 1.3 per cent, of their teeth showed evidence of decay. Here, too, Dr. Price found that people who had fallen into modern habits of diet had lost numerous teeth.

In addition to his field work, he carries out laboratory research at Cleveland, Ohio. From all parts of the world he receives specimens of saliva taken from patients under dental treatment and also samples of foodstuffs, particularly dairy products. A leading Auckland dentist has been supplying him with saliva samples and notes on local conditions, and in writing to him Dr. Price said recently that New Zealand dairy produce should providp the foundation for a diet calculated to improv* greatly the dental health of the country.

Dr. Price describes ordinary white flour as a menace to general health as well as to dental health, and all his researches have supported his view that modern white bread is chiefly responsible for dental decay.