How to Have Good Teeth

The dental experts last week spoke an aching mouthful of facts and theories that all added up to one sad conclusion: there's no future in teeth.

Try Starving. The 124 patients at the Birmingham (Ala.) Hillman Hospital were badly undernourished. They suffered from scurvy, pellagra, other starvation diseases. According to orthodox theory, their deficient diet should have ruined their teeth. But investigators found, to their surprise, that the 124 patients had only one-third as many cavities and missing teeth as well-fed people usually have.

These puzzling findings were reported in the Journal of the American Dental Association by four researchers who have been trying to find out why teeth go bad. Does a substandard diet prevent decay? Perhaps it does. The Birmingham men would not say, but they were sure that underfeeding does not cause decay.

Forget the Milk. Another authority, Dr. Philip Jay, director of the University of Michigan's Dental Caries Research Laboratory, cited a study of 300 starving natives of India. Most had excellent teeth (40% had no cavities; 95% of the well-fed U.S. population has cavities). Dentist Jay also drilled deep into another pair of common beliefs: 1) that milk is good for adults' teeth because it provides them with calcium; and 2) that a pregnant woman is vulnerable to tooth decay. Not so, says Jay: after tooth enamel is formed (in childhood), nothing can be done either to add to it or subtract from it.

A normal, mature tooth has a hard outer enamel, an inner layer of dentine, and at the core a soft pulp containing the nerves and blood vessels (see diagram). Because blood vessels do not reach the enamel, they bring it no nourishment, take none away, says Jay.

Cut Out Sweets. Jay's 18-year study of teeth has convinced him that (as many dentists now believe) the prime cause of tooth decay is a germ called Lactobacillus acidopholus. Found in saliva, it attacks teeth from the outside. Sugar is bad for the teeth because lactobacilli thrive on it.

As a tooth-decay preventive, Jay is experimenting with a six-weeks diet (starting with no sugar or carbohydrates and gradually increasing the allowance) which seems to discourage the enamel-eating lactobacilli for six months to two years afterward. (Jay guesses that a sugarless diet may encourage the growth of germs that fight lactobacilli.) The best recipe for good teeth: drink fluorine-containing water in childhood (TIME, April 24, 1944). If fluorine, which lactobacilli detest, is introduced into the enamel while the teeth are being formed, the teeth get permanent protection.

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