It is the custom in my county dental society that one of the winter meetings is given to a local dentist, usually a specialist. This is because of inclement weather we do not have to worry about a speaker canceling or being unable to arrive in time to give the presentation. In the twenty-one years that I have been a member I can count on one hand the number of times that a local general dentist has given it. I consider it an honor that my colleagues noticed what I was doing and had me credentialed to give them a lecture.
Some problems that have been noted are that there are a lot of plates clanking. It was a dinner meeting. Some of the terms are technical. This is a group of about 60 dentists. Finally, we had some audio-visual issues. I could not see the slides from the lectern and I don’t have a tic in my hand, the laser pointer was acting up. All in all the feed back from my colleagues has been overwhelmingly positive with a few telling me that they are going to incorporate some of these principles into their practice and lives.
Anyone who follows me on social media knows that over the last year or so I have lowered my Body Mass Index from a 26 (considered just outside the normal range) to under a 21. Well within the normal range. I have found this journey ridiculously easy and have managed to do it without hunger or much of struggle at all.
Right now America is suffering an epidemic of obesity. Diabetes (type 2, specifically) is at a level NEVER SEEN IN HUMAN HISTORY BEFORE. Clearly something is wrong. After much research and talking to people much smarter than myself, I came to the conclusion that the advise given to Americans by our government is wrong. I set out to find out why this is the case. The answers are in the pages of the books written by Gary Taubes and William Davis. If you can handle the truth here are the links to their books.
Why We Get Fat and What to do About It by Gary Taubes
Wheat Belly by William Davis
After reading some I was laying in bed reflecting on my career as a dentist when it came to me. Dentistry treats three diseases. Tooth decay, Periodontitis, and malocclusions. (Crooked teeth) Malocclusions include both orthodontics and the surgical removal of impacted teeth. These diseases are ALL caused by carbohydrate consumption, Carbohydrates are not (never were and NEVER EVER) will be an obligate nutrient for humans. Let’s treat our patients by removing these unnecessary items from the diet and these diseases will disappear! Could it be this easy? Why hasn’t someone else thought of this? I don’t know but it is my obligation to spread the word.
If you examine the literature you will come across Weston Price’s landmark work, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. In it he examines multiple cultures and the condition of their dental and overall health. One culture would be anecdotal but twelve far flung cultures from different parts of the world? Pre Neolithic peoples NEVER had dental disease. Why is this not taught in dental school? Why aren’t dental researchers even asking these questions! There a few reasons, none of them good, but they do supply an explanation.
First, Dr. Price’s book was published in 1939. This was not a good year for science unless you were developing weapons of war. Second, Dr. Price was neither a fan of fluoride or root canals. This put him on the wrong side politically of some important dental issues of his day. Finally, reading his book now it is full of terms, while common at the time, are outdated and offensive such as, “White man’s diet,” “Primitive cultures,”
and “Mental delinquents.” As his book gives us a picture of a world that no longer exists, I would urge the modern reader to look past this and examine his intent and interpretation of the data he presents.
The scientific word for “frame of reference” is paradigm. These are the links to my lecture.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Addendum ( I introduce the video Sugar, The Bitter Truth and discuss)
In part three I describe how we got into the wrong paradigm. It is not hard to follow. If you read at least one of the above books and watch part three of my lecture you will understand how this happened.
All dental diseases are caused by carbohydrates. Remove them from your diet and you will not have any dental disease. Tooth decay is the most common disease of humans. It is possible to eliminate it period. If you are not with a dentist that believe that find one who does.
Thanks for sharing, Doc. A couple years ago I was reading about the Cleave-Yudkin theory on carbohydates causing dental and chronic systemic disease. They developed that in the mid-20th century. A phrase I picked up then was "No carbs, no cavities." No dentist ever told me that. Sure, when I was a kid (1964) they told me to lay off the candy. Starting in Fall of 2009, I drastically reduced my carb consumption to 30g daily for four months, then eased up to 100 g/day. I was hoping my periodontal "pockets" would be less deep. Alas, after a year they still measured in the 4-5 mm range. -Steve
No carbs does equal no cavities. They did not tell me that either, I had to figure it out for myself but it is true. Get those pockets treated and you should be pretty optimal as far as dentistry goes.
great presentation...thanx for sharing...
Informative presentation! It is so important to speak to fellow practitioners and show them alternate views based in science and experience. Since you mentioned Price who wrote extensively about vit A, D and activator X (vit K2), I was curious as to the bone formations in Exotosos http://www.exodontia.info/Exostoses-Osteomata.html , could this be yet another manifestation of deficiencies of these vitamins or lack of balance between them?
That is a great question and while it is impossible to know the answer with certitude, I doubt it for several reasons. First of all, tori were common in early homonins so this is nothing new. Secondly, it does tend to run in families so that would imply some genetic predisposition. Finally, we were taught in dental school that while not necessarily normal, it occurs frequently and is considered a “variant of normal.” Evolutionarily, they may provide some advantage by strengthening the bone. Think of them as natural I-beams. Most tend to grow slowly and the pictures in the article you reference tend to take anywhere from 50-80 years to get that large.