The Mouth

People are probably gonna see the title on this blog & assume it's all about the book of James in the Bible & that sort of thing. 

But no.......it's simply about the mouth.....

When I was pregnant with my son (late 2008/early 2009) I was doing a lot of research on baby formulas, etc that led me to learning about a man named Weston Price.  While I'm not sure if I agree with everything he has to say, I do find it quite interesting.

Since he was a dentist he knew a lot about mouths.  He pointed out that in olden times you didn't see people needing orthodontics like they do nowadays.  Granted there were people with crooked teeth out there, but not nearly as many as there are nowadays & the problems with people's mouths were also not as complicated as they are nowadays.  It's not just crooked teeth, but palates & jaw bones & structure that is inadequate that is causing the crooked teeth.  People's faces are more narrow these days than in our ancestors days.

He attributed this to poor nutrition.  Now before you go thinking that you eat healthy & yet you needed braces, just hold on a second.  As with most things it's not quite that black & white. 

I do like Michael Pollan a lot.  I've read a few of his books & have seen him interviewed many times.  I think everyone should be required to read his book "food rules"--it's a short read in case you're interested.  But one thing that I've heard him say in interviews (& possibly elsewhere, I think maybe in the film "Food, Inc") is that the way we eat has changed more in the last 100 years than ever before.  I probably don't have the wording exactly as he said, but that's the gist of it.  And again, this goes back to what Weston Price is saying. 

It's not necessarily that we are eating poorly, at least in our eyes.  It's that the way we eat & the foods that we eat & the way foods are processed is so very new & different. Some of the foods we eat have been eaten for a long time, but it's now made a different way.  Science is now so intertwined with our foods.

So this got me thinking about my own mouth.  I had a MAJOR overbite.  I had braces for 7 years.  And yet
my teeth STILL move back if I don't periodically wear my retainer.  (I usually wear it 1-3 nights/month)  The thing I've noticed is that it's not actually my teeth that move, it's my palate.  It seems odd to me that at the age of 39 my palate is still so pliable, but it is.  I've even had dentists question me & doubt me, but it's true. 

But recently I was considering the fact that the orthodontist simply moved my palate to correct my overbite (I'm sure it was a bit more complicated than that, but that was definitely a large factor).  That doesn't necessarily mean that the problem is fixed though, especially when they just want to keep on moving right back.  I then started considering the overall structure of my mouth & I noticed that either my mouth is very small or my tongue is quite large.  With my mouth closed I realized my tongue is crowded.  It goes up the backside of my front & rolls it's way up to the palate area behind my front teeth.  Of course I don't know if other people's mouths are like or not, but I have a strong suspicion that they are not.  I asked my hubby & he says his tongue ends right at the back of his lower teeth, so I know that at least one other person is not like me.

I believe it takes generations to completely reverse this as far as passing on the bad nutrition problems to our kids, grandkids, etc.  But I do hope to help Lil J not have problems, if that's at all possible.  I need to look into Weston Price's recommendations some more.  And I am giving Lil J some Mexican vitamins that are for teeth & bones, which specifically address the whole mouth bone structure situation.  I personally know someone who has absolutely perfect teeth & they told me it was because they were given these vitamins when they were a toddler. 

I just find it an interesting subject to ponder, sorry if it's boring to everyone else.

And just one more thought: this is just my personal thought, but it goes along the lines of poor nutrition causing narrow jaw structure.  I have to wonder if the fact that so many nowadays have narrow pelvises & can't deliver their babies vaginally isn't possibly due to poor nutrition.  If poor nutrition can cause narrow jaw structure, couldn't it also cause narrow hip structure??