Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic

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This book is great if you’re new to the world of malocclusion and are not yet aware of the massive effect tongue ties may have on our jaws AND bodies as a whole. There is some history for the minority view we present, especially in the work of pioneering orthodontist John Mew, to whom Sandra took her son after hearing his lecture in 2012. Mew successfully treats patients by returning distorted oral-facial growth to its normal course through “orthotropics,” a program that encourages normal jaw growth and development. Orthotropics is a very important discipline with a lousy name. It is too easily confused with standard “orthodontics,” from which it has major differences. As a result Sandra renamed “orthotropics,” calling it “forwardontics,” to avoid the confusion. The two names are synonymous. Forwardontics is the term we will use from now on, except when we refer to Mew’s work or to literature that employs the designation orthotropics. Forwardontics is more descriptive for the general public and includes all treatments that focus on forward development of teeth and jaws in both children and adults.

In short, Jaws is designed to introduce you to the vast problems of oral-facial health, which, like issues of gluten, might have once seemed as simple and insignificant as sliced bread and which now are as significant as sliced bread. And it is designed to help you decide what, if any, personal actions you can take to improve your health and well-being. It’s a guide for thinkers, not a recipe book. So read on and make up your own mind. Notes

Contributing factors

The major claim of the book is that you and Sandra Kahn have unearthed a hidden epidemic in which people’s lifestyles are affecting how their jaws develop, with many downstream health consequences. What do you feel is the most convincing evidence of that? I think the best evidence comes from human ancestors. Richard Klein, Stanford paleontologist and the world’s expert on the human fossil record, said to me, “I’ve never seen a hunter-gatherer skull with crooked teeth.” J. I. Silverberg and P. Greenland. 2015. Eczema and cardiovascular risk factors in 2 US adult population studies. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 135: 721–728. e726.

This epidemic has important consequences for heart health. I'm delighted Jaws is bringing it home to both citizens and health care professionals."Another environmental change that contributed to the epidemic was moving indoors, where things that cause allergies such as dust mites and formaldehyde concentrate. Allergies create stuffy noses, and that leads to mouth breathing. That, in turn, bypasses the natural air cleaning, warming, and humidifying functions for which the nose was designed.

Y. K. Peker, J. Hedner, J. Norum, H. Kraiczi, and J. Carlson. 2002. Increased incidence of cardiovascular disease in middle-aged men with obstructive sleep apnea: A 7-year follow-up. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 166: 159–165. A bold and provocative title. The subject matter deserves that, and much, much more. What is the subject? I found myself wondering time and again.In a new co-authored book, biologist Paul Ehrlich describes the connection between underdeveloped jaws, modern life and myriad health and quality-of-life issues. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero) Figure 4: See another typical result of another patient of Dr. Simon Wong’s consecutively treated sample, before and after Forwardontics treatment. This clinical work is not unusual in a Forwardontics practice, but the norm. The orthodontic profession should be obsessed with corroborating these clinical results with 3-D full airway scans, polisomnograms, and behavioral and other health markers for these kinds of patients, which are much too common in our society. The jaws epidemic is very serious, but the good news is, we can actually do something about it,” said Paul Ehrlich, the Bing Professor of Population Studies, Emeritus, at Stanford and one of the study’s authors. C. S. Larsen. 2006. The agricultural revolution as environmental catastrophe: Implications for health and lifestyle in the Holocene. Quaternary International 150: 12–20.

The evidence of a genetic contribution to the jaws epidemic is not strong,” said Feldman, who is a population geneticist and the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor and professor of biology. In their book, Kahn and Ehrlich make the case that crooked teeth (and braces) are a modern problem caused primarily by eating soft foods, living in confined spaces with allergens and poor posture, including mouth breathing. The authors declare this an epidemic, linking undersized jaws to increased risk of heart disease, hyperactivity, sleep deprivation and other issues that are endemic to modern life. Perhaps the cheeriest news on the jaws front, particularly for orthodontists, comes from the clinical front. People have some power to protect their children from this serious and cryptic environmental problem. Jaws lays out both causes and cures."

Introduction

The central premise is an idea that has been popular with anthropologists and some fringe orthodontists: crooked teeth are a function of undersized jaws due to changes in diet and lifestyle. Kahn and Ehrlich marshal their supportive evidence, but for anyone who wants to read about this, I would instead recommend Nestor's book "Breath." This book seems to have more of a how-to emphasis on how to encourage jaw growth in children, but they rarely include children's ages, which make the advice hard to follow. They recommend `hard' food and a 'pre-industrial diet,' but they don't say what this is, or what age these foods can be given. They only give lip service to women who cannot breast feed; I think that this would be a difficult read for women who had had a low supply, or required a medicine that interfered with lactation. This goes to show that in many cases, lifestyle choices can have just as powerful if not more of an influence on human traits than underlying genetics. “A genetic contribution to a trait, if there is one, does not necessarily sentence you to a life with that trait,” said Feldman. “In almost all cases, you cannot intervene medically to alter a genetic contribution; it’s not actionable. But what is actionable are the things talked about in this study, as well as Paul and Sandra’s book.” Contributing factors Humblest apologies to the authors for any harsh criticism, but thank you for writing this. I want to say that I am on your side. But the material needs to be taken to much, much further depth even for myself as a general audience. I hope this succeeded in planting the seed for change, and I am sure this is only one among your many commitments to health in our times. You’re connecting reduced jaw size with stress and associated health risks. How is it possible for all of those things, which seem so disparate, to be linked?