I HAVE another serious tooth infection, which is why I have not been posting much. The results have made me wonder how much refined sugar and other processed foods have contributed to my dental problems over the years. Perhaps if I could view myself as a victim, I might feel better. I happened to come across this relevant quote today in the little book, The Church and Farming by the Rev. Denis Fahey. The passage is by the French scientist Dr. Alexis Carrel from his Man, the Unknown.

Modern Man is delicate …Medicine is far from having decreased human sufferings as much as is generally believed. It is true that the number of deaths from infectious diseases has diminished, but the deaths from degenerative diseases have increased, and the sicknesses consequent on these diseases are longer and more painful. The years of life which we have gained by the suppression of diphtheria, smallpox, typhoid fever, etc., are paid for by the long suffering and lingering deaths caused by chronic affections, and especially by cancer, diabetes, and heart disease … The maladies of the central nervous system are innumerable … Although modern hygiene has considerably prolonged the average length of life, it is very far from having done away with diseases. It has simply changed their nature .. The organism has become more susceptible to degenerative diseases … The ordinary staple foods do not contain the same nutritive substances as in former times. Mass production and commercial processing have modified the composition of wheat, eggs, milk, fruit and butter, although these articles have retained their familiar appearance … Hygienists have not paid sufficient attention to the genesis of diseases. Their studies of the modes of life and of nourishment on the physiological, intellectual and moral state of modern men are superficial, incomplete and of too short duration.

— Comments —

Shannon Hood writes:

Have you read anything by the dentist Weston A Price? He did a formidable amount of research on the dental health of peoples whose diet was completely untouched by modern food (refined fours, sugar, etc). It is absolutely fascinating, and, if his studies are to be believed, you are correct in your assumption that your tooth problems are 100 percent caused by the modern Western diet. In fact, he discovered that these people who ate how their ancestors had eaten for many hundreds of years had, in many cases, zero cavities. They also never brushed or flossed their teeth. Contrast that with your average American who brushes twice a day and flosses regularly and yet still gets cavities. Dental health, I am convinced, is completely based in one’s diet.

Laura writes:

Thanks.

Yes, I have read briefly about his work on that subject.

I’ve always thought I’ve been lucky, dentally speaking, because of modern dentistry. My dentist, to whom I am very grateful, has such impressive, high-tech jackhammers for blasting my teeth to smithereens. But maybe in another era I wouldn’t have had so many problems.

It’s not like I sit around eating candy all day. But maybe I eat enough refined sugar and flour to destroy my teeth. Or maybe it’s just an inherited weakness. I would like to know more about the history of teeth. Not my teeth, good heavens. All teeth.

(Now I know someone is going to write in any minute and say that Price’s theories are wrong.)

A reader writes:

Read about modern-day wheat in Wheat Belly, by the cardiologist, Dr. William Davis.

All those years I thought I was doing something healthy for my family by grinding wheat and baking bread…

Buck writes:

I feel your pain.

As I click on this entry I’m carefully chewing – trying to avoid landing a hard almond onto one of my several sensitive teeth – a chunk of one of twenty-five newly arrived Claxton fruitcakes. I just smuggled these one-pound beauties in from Selma, N.C.

Toothpick, then toothbrush; for me, just a part of the “process.”

Laura writes:

Isn’t it a little early to be eating fruitcake?

Paul writes:

Oh my goodness sweetie. I am sorry to hear about your tooth. I will pray for you. Let me know if there is anything I can do.

Unlike me, who inherited my grandmother’s/father’s perfect, strong Italian teeth, my mother had bad teeth that she capped but suffered with all of her life. Being close to my mother, I can empathize with you more than most.

But my Daddy did develop an infected molar when he was in his sixties or seventies. His dentist (many or most of whom are salesmen-I scored at 95% on their admission test but had no interest except for oral surgery) performed two root canals over a period of years. But the infection would return. He went back, and the dentist proposed a third root canal. The dentist tried to sell it by saying, “But it is a mashing tooth.” My mother, a wise woman, told him no way. She told him he needed to go to our superb oral surgeon, who said there was no way the dentist could have cured the infection. The surgeon removed the tooth and cleaned out all the infection. I don’t recall what prosthetic was used at a later date. Cured. No more pain.

I am not a dentist or an oral surgeon, but there is no way you should be suffering. I mean well and hope I don’t seem obnoxious.

Paul adds:

Please don’t listen to all of those speculators, whom I have read since my e-mail to you. My mother, father, and I all loved sweets and did not restrain our intake. But only my mother and brother had problems. They had them from a young age, before the intake could have affected them. In our family, it was genes. My brother’s problems were much less than my mother’s, presumably because of our Daddy’s genes. My bite is exactly my father’s bite. Our dentist called everyone around to observe the x-rays when I first started seeing an adult dentist at about fourteen. He and the other dentist had never heard of it before.

You are not responsible. Modern dietary habits are debatable. Pain is not. I hope you will consider an oral surgeon or at least another dentist.

Laura writes:

Thanks for your concern.

I’ve had root canal several times. I am not finished getting root canal on this molar, which is very infected. I don’t know but I think perhaps I should have waited until the infection subsided before I started. My dentist has helped me with many problems over the years.

A Reader writes:

After reading your post I came across “Your ecosystem on Msg” by Katherine Reid, PhD. She gives quite a wake up call concerning manufactured foods.

Buck writes:

This is a very old story, and it’s an acutely sensitive one to too many of us. At my age of sixty-seven, I just recently began to pay more attention to my teeth. Too late. Now, the watch-word is consistency – never hot, then cold. It’s a very short trip to the brain for tooth pain.

I lean to the luck-of-the-genes, or pick-the-right-parents side of the lucky-tooth/neglected-teeth question. But, like most things, I pushed my luck.

I had average teeth as a kid, three or four cavities were filled. That seemed to be the end of it. I don’t remember ever going to the dentist after grade school. A Marine dentist looked at my teeth in boot camp and apparantly found nothing wrong. Twenty-five years later I visited my childhood dentist, the practice now run by his son and two assistants in the same location. He asked: “When was your last visit?”. Twenty-five years ago, I said. He laughed. Then he walked back out to the waiting room reading my file. “You weren’t kidding.”

An assistent picked at my teeth with those metal tools and found nothing to scrape or clean. No tarter. I left there self-satisfied even more foolish than ever.

Another twenty-five years later, four teeth, the ones in front of my four wishdom teeth took turns crumbling into pieces, all within a year of so. I persevered as if I live alone in the wilderness with no other choice, having just my stupidity to rely on.

My crumbling orthosphere. I’ve always heard stories and known people who have their wisdom teeth “pulled”, but I never understood why. It always seemed voluntary, a vague “good idea”. Why? My wisdom teeth are clearly the strongest four teeth in my shrinking head. Whatever the forces at play, the four teeth in front of them have slowly been crushed into bits; a break up always preceeded by several days on unremitting pain. After each chunk fell out, the pain was gone, and I entered into a blissful period of relaxed and happy chewing. Apparently it has become too crowded in my mouth. Do teeth continue to grow, or is my head actually shrinking? The fight for space continues now, in the front of my mouth, for anyone to see. One lower tooth is squeezed behind and up between the two adjacent teeth, to appear half-again larger. It grown so obvious that I now see people averting their glances away. I have a snaggle tooth. It’s risen like a momument to my stupidity or as a badge of honor to my growing crusty-geezer persona. But, so far, there is no pain.

I actually searched for earlier photos, to see if I’m loosing more than my teeth. Sure enough, they were once white and in good order. I actually had a healthy smile.

So, I’m as confidently as ever onto phase three of my rugged-wilderness tooth-care scheme. If I get through another twenty-five years, I’m good to go, and I’ll have proved some stupid point. But, I should probably get in that long line at the Veterans Administration, if it’s not too late to have a dental “plan”.

Karen I. writes:

I am sorry to hear you are having dental problems.

When your current problem heals, you may want to consider asking your dentist about using Crest Pro Health rinse. It is about $5 at most drug stores.

I have good teeth, thanks to a lot of orthodontic work as a kid, but for a long time, I had a persistent infection in the gum area over one tooth, which was chronically swollen and red. I tried everything to make it go away, from flossing to seeing a periodontist, who did scaling and planing to try to cut the infection out. I lost some gum tissue to that procedure, but the infection still persisted. Even a prescription rinse did not work. Finally, I tried the Crest Pro Health rinse that was recommended by my kids’ dentist to keep their teeth and gums healthy while they were in braces. Within two days, the infection was gone!

My sister had persistent gingivitis, and I suggested she try the Crest Pro Health. She had the same good results. It might be worth a try. You can put it on a q-tip to spot apply it in problem areas or rinse with it. By the way, I think you are right about diet being a major factor in problems with teeth, but I also think genetics play a role. I am equal parts Italian, Russian, Irish and English. The Italian side of my family has great teeth, but the Irish suffer no end of problems.

Laura writes:

One more disadvantage of being Irish. We live to suffer.

Thank you for the suggestions and concern.

A reader writes:

I hope you are feeling better. Wish I knew how to help you. I second the WAPF suggestion, since his area was dental health.

Here is his original book online. Many of the photos alone are worth a look.

Laura writes:

Thank you.

Sophia writes:

That quote gets at exactly what I have been trying to understand regarding modern medicine and “progress” and the skepticism I’ve had yet without enough knowledge to make sense of it all. This is why I wonder about everything we do nowadays, even to showering daily. Our ancestors certainly didn’t, and even my fiancé’s stepfather bathed once a week (in the same water as the rest of his family). He confirmed that he did not feel dirty. This page even explains scientifically why it’s not best to shower daily. And now onto teeth… I don’t buy into the “paleo diet” approach regarding wheat (Wheat Belly, etc.), which condemns it completely, since it condemns the advent of agriculture. Dr. Weston A. Price observed peoples with perfect teeth who ate such grain; the difference that so many of us are totally missing is that it was fermented, breaking down the phytic acid which doesn’t allow us to absorb nutrients in our diet generally. Here’s a great article; the author runs this website from which you can order a sourdough starter. This article goes more into the recent history of bread. Now I only eat bread in this form. I’ll start baking it myself soon; currently I’m taken up with regularly preparing raw milk kefir (a traditional probiotic fermented drink). :-) The “wise traditions” approach to nutrition truly fits us.

Hurricane Betsy writes:

Sorry about your suffering, Laura.

I really felt good reading Buck’s words: ” I’ve always heard stories and known people who have their wisdom teeth “pulled”, but I never understood why. It always seemed voluntary, a vague “good idea”. Why? My wisdom teeth are clearly the strongest four teeth in my shrinking head.”

I think all that pulling of wisdom teeth, no matter how healthy and wellplaced they are, is just dentists drumming up business for themselves. Like doctors cutting out healthy tonsils/prepuces/appendixes “because they might cause problems in the future.” It is heartbreaking to contemplate.

Like Buck, my four wisdom were always my best. One rotted down to nothing, the other 3 in my late-middle-aged mouth are perfectissimo. I never bothered seeing a dentist about the rotten one. Costs too much and I don’t like complicated extractions.

Thanks, Buck, for your story about your teeth. Lots of other really good comments, too, on teeth and general health, especially the best bread being fermented. Some health food stores in big cities sell something called “Desem” bread made from old varieties of grain. This is top of the line fermented. Of course you can make your own, too.

A Reader writes:

I did not see that the article on Wheat Belly condemns the advent of agriculture.

It does say:

So why has this seemingly benign plant that sustained generations of humans suddenly turned on us? For one thing, it is not the same grain our forebears ground into their daily bread. Wheat has changed dramatically in the past fifty years under the influence of agricultural scientists. Wheat strains have been hybridized, crossbred, and introgressed to make the wheat plant resistant to environmental conditions, such as drought, or pathogens, such as fungi. But most of all, genetic changes have been induced to increase yield per acre. Such enormous strides in yield have required drastic changes in genetic code. Such fundamental genetic changes have come at a price.

It also points out that now “whole wheat bread increases blood sugar to a higher level than sucrose.”

I don’t know if sourdough bread takes care of the damage done by the hybridization of wheat.

Just yesterday I learned of someone who has to eat gluten-free wheat here but when visiting her family in Italy she can eat all the wheat she wants with no problem. So in Italy do they grow their own strain of wheat, or, if they buy USA wheat, do they process it differently that makes a difference?