TL;DR: If everyone ate whole, unprocessed foods with enough nutrition from animal foods, no one would need braces, and it’s likely that all chronic diseases would drastically reduce.
“Medicine is far from having decreased human sufferings as much as it endeavors to make us believe. Indeed, the number of deaths from infectious diseases has greatly diminished. But we still must die in a much larger proportion from degenerative diseases.”
-Dr. Alexis Carrel, from “Man, the Unknown”. Carrel is a doctor, surgeon, and Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine 1912
Introduction
Our mouths are very important, and not just for eating, but for our image and self esteem as well. Everyone is attracted to someone with a nice smile – it is a deeply ingrained instinct we have. We know that someone with healthy teeth and a good jaw is likely healthy overall as a person, and ultimately is a good person to reproduce with.
It seems strange then that something so important is in such a bad state. Currently, about half of all people in the West require braces at some point in their life because their teeth don’t come in straight and their jaws don’t align properly. In many cases, without correction, serious impairment to everyday life can occur and a person’s appearance and self image can suffer.
Luckily, nowadays it’s not a death sentence or a lifelong problem when we have teeth and jaws that don’t really work right. We have sophisticated ways of fixing problems like this with braces, retainers, and dentists.
When we’re kids, we’re told that it’s just luck of the draw; some people need braces, others are just lucky. However, in many populations – especially ones living very traditional lifestyles, almost no one needs braces. And it’s not just genetics or luck of the draw either because when these populations change their diet, they start developing the same dental problems that others do.
This article covers the dental and general health of the Western world, the story of an unsatisfied dentist and his findings in populations across the world, and finally lessons are drawn from these populations and the question of why we truly need braces is revisited.
Dental Health As We Know It
Dental health is strongly correlated with overall health, somewhat surprisingly so. The reason for this seems to be, according Mayo Clinic:
“Like other areas of the body, your mouth teems with bacteria — mostly harmless. But your mouth is the entry point to your digestive and respiratory tracts, and some of these bacteria can cause disease.”
They further list conditions linked to oral health, which include endocarditis (infection of the inner lining of the heart), cardiovascular disease and stroke, pregnancy and birth complications, and pneumonia. It could be that poor dental health causes poor overall health, or that dental health and overall health are affected by the same factors.
Our dental health right now, at least in the West, is not great. Currently, about 45% of people need braces at some point in their life [1]. At any point in time as a snapshot, about 27% of adults have untreated dental cavities and 91% of adults over 20 have had cavities in the past [2].
We also have high rates of overall disease, for instance, 12.9% of Canadians 20 years or older reported 2 or more chronic diseases in 2011 [3]. In the US, 1 in 2 women and 1 in 3 men will develop cancer at some point in their lifetime [4]. 30 million in the US are diagnosed with heart disease, which is almost 10% of the population. Our mental health doesn’t fare much better, with depression as a leading cause of being unable to work.
The point of these statements is just that there is a high rate of dental issues that coincide with high overall rates of disease in the West. However, not all areas of the world have these problems, and many that do now did not in the past. Why are there such differences between groups?
A Dentist Comes to the Rescue
When you search for “why do we need braces?”, or “why do people need braces?”, the top results just describe when you need braces, but not why you need them in the first place.
But, when you search for “why teeth don’t come in straight?”, the top search result in Google says:
“Most commonly, this is caused by hereditary factors like extra teeth, large teeth, missing teeth, wide spacing, or small jaws.” [5]
It seems like this reason could make sense, however, there is one glaring fact that sheds serious doubt on the fact that the problem is genetic: many very genetically different populations from all over the world exist with no need for braces. In these populations, teeth and jaws form perfectly fine almost 100% of the time compared to about 50% for the modernized West. Are all of these different people from different areas just genetically lucky, or is there an environmental factor at play? Are people in the developed world just unlucky genetically, or could we also reach the same level of dental health naturally?
Around the turn of the 19th century, a Canadian dentist named Weston Price had such an interest in this question that he set out on a 10 year odyssey of anthropological research around the globe to the following populations:
- Swiss
- Gaelic
- Eskimo
- North American Indians
- Melanesians
- Polynesians
- African Tribes
- Australian Aborigines
- Torres Strait Islanders
- New Zealand Maori, and
- Peruvians
While talking to these people, he took meticulous notes and photographs of their teeth and noted rates of tooth decay and dental formation. He then compiled his research into a book called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
“FIG. 24. The Seminole Indians living today in southern Florida largely beyond contact with the white civilization still produce magnificent teeth and dental arches of which these are typical. They live in the Everglade forest and still obtain the native foods.”
He noticed that in some other populations, no one had the same problems with their teeth that the West did. He found out that nearly always, primitive societies – i.e. bearing similarities to hunter gatherers, had pretty much perfect teeth, jaws, and near zero rate of cavities. Furthermore, when these societies came into contact with Western ones, mostly through trade, they started to develop facial deformities, including the jaw, and they started developing many more cavities. Western diet, Western problems. Even more interestingly, he discovered that when people had improperly formed jaws, they also had a much higher likelihood of improperly formed skeletons as a whole and other health issues.
And if that wasn’t enough, he also found that pregnancy was much less painful in populations on a primitive (i.e. natural) diet, and that it was faster and less traumatic. Not only that, but that babies were much, much healthier when both the woman and man were in a good state of health at the time of conception. This makes a lot of sense when we see all traditional societies maintain the wisdom that before and throughout pregnancy, and continuing through breastfeeding, women are to be given the cream of the crop: animals fats, organ meats, and other foods high in vitamins and minerals. Men, too, often eat foods and herbs that are known to boost fertility. With the food we most commonly eat now being low in key nutrients, it’s no wonder fertility and childbirth are such a problem.
Furthermore, Price noted the strong correlation between dental and facial misformation and rates of crime, delinquency, and learning problems and cognitive issues. In one case, he identified that 90% of inmates in one prison had facial and dental misformation caused by lack of nutrition [6].
The one factor Price identified was most important was how much of key nutrients a population got from its food. Specifically, nutrients from animal foods like fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K were essential to proper body formation. He found not a single vegan or vegetarian society with healthy teeth and bodies (in fact, no traditional society he knew of was vegan or vegetarian in the first place).
“The writer is fully aware that his message is not orthodox; but since our orthodox theories have not saved us we may have to readjust them to bring them into harmony with Nature’s laws. Nature must be obeyed, not orthodoxy. Apparently many primitive races have understood her language better than have our modernized groups. Even the primitive races share our blights when they adopt our conception of nutrition.”
-Weston Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
Dental Health As It Could Be
Many populations not only have no need for braces and almost no incidence of cavities, but have almost zero heart disease and cancer as well as other degenerative conditions like osteoporosis. And yet, some of them never brush their teeth or visit the dentist. Rather than correct our teeth with braces and dental surgery to remove cavities or blame flossing and brushing our teeth as causes, we should ideally learn from these populations and prevent any need for corrective action in the first place, following the logic of the phrase “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Of course, our modern tools and practices will still be helpful, but they shouldn’t be the first line of defense.
Below, one example of the populations with exceptional health from the book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, are given, the Gaelic. Examples of their health on their traditional diet, and on a processed diet are contrasted with a specific note on dental health.
The Modern Gaelic vs. the Traditional Gaelic
This population Dr. Price studied live in the Islands of the Outer Hebrides off the Northwest coast of Scotland and were well known for their sturdy health and strong character. They were quite isolated from most of modern civilization at the time Dr. Price travelled there.
“FIG. 5. A typical “black house” of the Isle of Lewis derives its name from the smoke of the peat burned for heat. The splendid physical development of the native Gaelic fisherfolk is characterized by excellent teeth and well formed faces and dental arches.”
At the time Dr. Price did his research, around 20,000 people lived on the Isle of Lewis, made up entirely of fishers and farmers. They primarily ate fish and oat products with some barley. One particularly important food they relished is the baked cod’s head stuffed with chopped cod’s liver and oatmeal. See our article on the most nutritious foods to see liver’s nutrition facts.
Isle of Lewis marked on Google Maps
Dr. Price notes that of the youth of the interior of the Isle of Lewis, only 1.3 teeth out of every hundred had had a cavity at some point (1.3%). Compared to 27% in the modernized western world, this is significantly less. However, in the seaport town of Stornoway, Price noted 25 out of 100 people had false teeth (25%). Stornoway, being a trading port, offered many more modern foods than what was available at the interior or the Isle of Lewis including angel food cake, white bread, canned marmalades, canned vegetables, sweetened fruit juices, and jams.
Below, a family living close to Stornoway had two sons who ate different diets. One ate the traditional foods of the Gaelic, including fish, oats and some dairy. The other insisted on eating white bread, jam, very sweet coffee, and chocolate. Dr. Price notes that the son eating more traditional foods had a much healthier facial structure and the son eating more processed foods had missing teeth, cavities, and even had quite a lot of trouble getting up in the morning for work.
“FIG. 6. Above: brothers, Isle of Harris. The younger at left uses modern food and has rampant tooth decay. Brother at right uses native food and has excellent teeth. Note narrowed face and arch of younger brother.“
Dr. Price also notes that as the Isle of Lewis is more exposed to processed foods, it seems to correlate with reduced immunity. At the time he was researching there, the younger generation were experiencing a lot of tuberculosis, which usually did not affect other generations very much. They even built a special hospital in Stornoway in response to the increasing number of serious cases. The people there did not suspect nutritional changes as a cause, but thought it had more to do with the smoke from their houses – though Price notes that previous generations had this same exposure as well.
Another example similar to Stornoway in the neighboring Isle of Harris, is Tarbert, which is the only shipping port on the island. In the mainland, such as in Scalpay, the diet was mostly oatmeal porridge, oatcake, and sea foods. Price did an examination and found only one out of every 100 teeth had ever had a cavity (1%). However, when he did the same examination in Tarvert he found that in the children there, 32.4 teeth out of 100 had a cavity (32.4%). Tarbert had the same access to white bread and sugary foods that Stornoway did.
“In studying the tragedy of the rampant tooth decay in the mouth of a young man [living in Tarbert], I asked him regarding his plans and he stated that he was expecting to go to Stornoway about sixty miles away in the near future, where there was a dentist, and have all his teeth extracted and plates made. He said that it was no use to have any teeth filled, that he would have to lose them anyway since that was everybody’s experience in Tarbert.”
“FIG. 7. Above: typical rugged Gaelic children, Isle of Harris, living on oats and sea food. Note the breadth of the faces and nostrils. Below: typical modernized Gaelics, Isle of Bardsey. Note narrowed faces and nostrils.”
There are more examples that Price gives on just the Gaelics, but the point is pretty clear and for readers interested in more examples, they can refer to the linked table of contents below, which will open an online copy of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
Dr. Price mentions the word vitamin 284 times in his book. Specifically, he mentions vitamin D often, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin K2 (which he called Activator X since it wasn’t named at the time). On traditional diets, roughly 10x the amount of fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) are found and 4x more minerals, compared to a typical diet including processed foods. He specifically notes that these nutrients are only found in appreciable quantities in animal foods, which all traditional societies included [6].
A specific note on diet in relation to facial structure is that it pertains to the entire skeleton and body. The image below shows an example of a boy who suffered from rheumatism, arthritis, and heart problems. After a year on a more traditional diet, this child recovered drastically.
“FIG. 94. This boy, age 5, had suffered for two and one-half years from inflammatory rheumatism, arthritis and heart involvement. Upper left shows limit of movement of neck, left wrist, swollen knees and ankles. The middle upper view shows the change in six months after improvement of his nutrition, and at right his change in one year. Below is shown the grossly demineralized and deformed skeleton of a pet monkey being fed on sweets and pastries.”
Other Examples
It’s interesting to note rates of cavities in some other populations:
- Eskimo on traditional diets: 0.09% of all teeth studied (lower Kuskokwim, Alaska)
- North American indians on traditional diets: Pelly Mountain, 0.16%; Juneau, 0.00%; Florida Pre-Columbian, 0.00%
- New Zealand Maori: 0.05%
These numbers are much lower than ours and even the traditional Gaelic. However, in all of these populations, whenever a group would eat processed foods found through trade their rates of cavities would rise up to 30%, often hundreds of times the rates of cavities as on their traditional diets. The same is found with the shape of their faces, skulls and bodies and the rate with which they had problems with how their teeth came in. It seems this suggests not genetics as the cause of requiring braces, but nutrition.
The diet of these three populations, and others with excellent teeth and bodies, were primarily animal foods. The Eskimo only eat animal foods traditionally, with the very rare serving of berries. The diet of North American Indians is almost entirely limited to animals they hunt. The Maori rely heavily on sea foods, especially shellfish, and they eat large quantities of kelp and fern root. In each case, an emphasis is placed on having enough animal foods in line with their traditional wisdom of what creates a healthy body.
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration Table of Contents:
Lessons To Take
The theme throughout lifestyles of the healthiest populations seems to be a certain closeness with nature, especially with regards to diet. Our natural diet for millions of years has included nutrient dense foods with key nutrients for the human body. Many of these nutrients can only be found in appreciable quantities in animal foods. In fact, Price noticed that every single population with healthy teeth had a priority on animal foods in their diet, especially for pregnant women.
- Whole foods / minimal processing
- Local foods
- Enough animal foods
- Physical movement, active
- Lots of socializing and communion
So, Why Do We Truly Need Braces?
It appears the true reason we need braces, according to Dr. Price’s research, is a lack of nutrition which causes narrowed dental arches, crowded teeth, and improper facial structure. Specifically, nutrition is important:
- In the diet of the mother and father months before conception
- In the diet of the mother during pregnancy and during breastfeeding, and
- In the diet of the child after breastfeeding, until adulthood
Populations with near perfect dental and facial structure such as the Gaelic islanders, Eskimo, New Zealand Maori and many more all share the similarity of living on a traditional and unprocessed diet. These diets naturally are high in fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K, as well as minerals. In fact, Dr. Price identifies a 10x higher concentration of fat soluble vitamins and a 4x higher concentration of minerals in these traditional diets compared to the average Western diet. In all populations with perfect teeth, an emphasis was made on animal foods from the land or sea. Lack of these nutrients causes problems such as narrow dental arches, which crowds teeth out of their natural position. In addition, this lack of nutrition impacts the entire body, likely resulting in the correlation between dental and overall health, including mental health, cognitive ability, and likelihood of committing crimes.
For hundreds of millions of years we’ve eaten “natural” foods, i.e. whole foods that have a natural structure and proportion of nutrients. For the last 2.5 million years or so, most of this was meat and other animal-based foods – see our article on The Carnivore Diet for more coverage on this (hint: ctrl + f “nitrogen”). It seems that the increase in animal foods in our diet at that time led to our brain increasing in size drastically. When we switched to a diet with more grains around 12,000 years ago, our height shrank about 6”, and we became weaker and more susceptible to disease. However, good health could still often be achieved as long as enough animal nutrition was still included. Around the time of the industrial revolution, starting a couple hundred years ago, our food took a turn for the worse and so did our health. As unnatural and packaged foods became ever more common, they displaced more natural and nutrient dense foods. This appears to be the primary cause of our now drastically high rates of degenerative health issues.
As Price says, “Life in all its fullness is mother nature obeyed”. Obeying our natural lifestyles and eating natural foods gives us natural bodies and teeth to match.
Read more about giving your body the nutrition it needs in our nutrition category.
Author’s Motivation
When I was a kid, I was scared of things going wrong with my body as I saw with so many others. I was told that things like braces, acne, cancer, etc. were mostly just random chance. This bothered me deeply, and as I got older I started to learn that this was mostly untrue. While there is a genetic factor to everything about us, I think our lifestyles are a more powerful factor in our health. Covering this one specific example, with the strong scientific backing in this book, is just one powerful testament to this belief and I think everyone should know about it.
It’s no secret that the Western medical system and pharmaceutical industry make more money when we’re sick than when we’re healthy. We can’t look to the current systems to advise us. The more people take their health and prevention of disease into their own hands, the farther along our society can come.
Conclusion
The purpose of this article was to investigate the question of why so many people in the Western world and other modern civilizations require braces, which is around 50% of people currently. Compared to the naturally perfect teeth, dental arches, and facial and bodily development seen in many traditional societies, we should question the conventional explanation that people need braces due to genetic reasons. When traditional societies adopt processed foods through trade, they have a very drastic rise in dental cavities, and their children have narrow facial arches that crowd the teeth. This appears due to much lower nutritional content of the food relative to their traditional diets. Furthermore, when one’s teeth don’t come in properly due to a lack of nutrition, there is a much higher likelihood of cognitive impairment, delinquency, and all other health issues. The power of a nutritious diet has far reaching implications for one’s health, and this impact compounds through generations due to the nutritional status of the mother and father at the time of conception, the mother throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding, and in the diet of the child.
References
[1] https://invisiblebraces.com/2020/08/06/percentage-people-need-braces-straighten-teeth/#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20people%20that,dental%20issues%20are%20more%20subtle
[2] https://www.ada.org/en/press-room/news-releases/2015-archive/may/new-cdc-data-on-adult-cavities#:~:text=Ninety%2Done%20percent%20of%20Americans,over%2020%20have%20untreated%20caries
[3]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4910465/#:~:text=Results%3A,have%20not%20completed%20high%20school
[4] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/288916
[5] https://www.childrenandteendental.com/blog-articles/kids-teeth-not-coming-in-straight-heres-what-to-do#:~:text=Why%20do%20teeth%20not%20come,wide%20spacing%2C%20or%20small%20jaws
[6] https://www.lostsavannafarm.com/single-post/2017/06/15/Nutrition-and-Physical-Degeneration-Weston-A-Price
