Pilots' Teeth

Pilot's Teeth

After long flights at high altitudes, many commercial pilots are temporarily deaf, hear waterfalls or hissing and crackling sounds that make them sour-tempered and touchy. Army and Navy pilots have the same sensations after tactical flights involving high-speed dives. These sensations were long ago traced to failure of the Eustachian tubes--passages connecting the throat and middle ear--to equalize ear pressures with changes in altitude.

Two and a half years ago Dr. Glenn E. Willhelmy of St. Louis, a Naval Reserve dentist, reported to the Navy that such ear troubles, along with attacks of vertigo (". . . if mild the pilot does not mention it ... if severe, he crashes"), were most often found in older airmen. His conclusion was that normal wear and loss of teeth make jaws shut out of position, cause a partial closure of the Eustachian tubes. His remedy: an up-building of teeth by inlays and other dental means to make a youthful jaw-fit.

To carry on Dr. Willhelmy's research, the Navy assigned Lieutenant Raymond Andrew Lowry of the Dental Corps. Last week 32-year-old Dr. Lowry, now detailed to the aircraft carrier Yorktown, made a report to the International Congress of Military Medicine and Pharmacy which confirmed Dr. Will-helmy's findings, and offered a simpler remedy.

Of 540 aviators examined, Navy Dentist Lowry found that 83 had abnormal closure of the jaws. Most of them were older airmen and 33 of them had ear troubles. His remedy was simple. From wax impressions he made dental splints, bits of form-fitting vulcanite, which fit snugly over lower molars and hold fliers' jaws in proper position. Because normally these are needed only during flight a pilot can carry his in his pocket, slip it between his teeth before takeoffs, leave it in his locker after landing. Dr. Lowry said they work.

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