Demand for specific cosmetic surgery procedures is typically associated with trends in fashion and beauty rather than health and wellness. In the case of the hot, new trend toward gap teeth, however, health and wellness seem to be taking center stage.
In recent months, dentists in London have experienced a curious rise in patient requests for gaps between their front teeth. Artificial creation of a gap is performed by sanding down the two front teeth to make them smaller. UK dentists are fielding an increased number of requests not only to create a gap where none existed before but also a rise in patients with natural gaps who refuse to have them “repaired” with the use of braces.
Dr. Abbas Tejani of the Yaletown Cosmetic and Laser Dentistry Clinic in London explains that beauty is all about symmetry and a “neat gap” in the middle of the teeth plays into this concept well.
Beauty indeed! Health is all about symmetry as well!
The Link Between Dental Health and Beauty
In the early 1930’s, Dr. Weston A. Price DDS began a ten year journey around the world to study indigenous cultures untouched by the ravages of modern civilization. What he found were people of incredible natural beauty and health that displayed perfect teeth virtually untouched by decay. The people of these cultures exhibited fine physiques, resistance to disease and fine characters to match their physical beauty.
Upon studying the foods of these Traditional Cultures, Dr. Price discovered their diets to be extremely high in the fat soluble vitamins A, D, and the mysterious Activator X, now known to be vitamin K2.
When babies receive enough of these fat soluble activators during gestation (only found in animal foods, by the way), the result is a wide dental arch, palate, and jaw that permits plenty of room for all emerging teeth – even a natural gap between the two front teeth on occasion!
Even more startling, Dr. Price’s research determined that Traditional Cultures consumed fat soluble vitamins at a rate at least TEN times higher than the American diet of his day. In the current age of fat phobia, consumption of these fat soluble vitamins via butter, cream, eggs yolks and grassfed meat would be drastically lower than even the 1930’s which explains why almost all children nowadays require some sort of orthodontic intervention. Only a few generations ago, few children required such treatment.
Sufficient fat soluble vitamin intake by the Mother prenatally also results in the physical symmetry that is referred to by Dr. Tajini as the basis for the human perception of beauty. Vitamin A, in particular, contributes significantly to symmetrical, and hence beautiful, development of a person’s exterior by buffering the asymmetrical cues during the early stages of development. Cleft palate, eye deformities and other physical defects are associated with low intake of true vitamin A prenatally.
This hot, new trend of gappy teeth in London likely precedes the same fad in the United States. Fashion and beauty trends typically start in Europe and then land in New York and Los Angeles before filtering out to the rest of the country.
Perhaps the emergence of gap teeth as a popular fashion “must have” is indicative of the instinctive, human preference for the manifestation of natural beauty and health. Certainly, a person with a natural gap between the front teeth would externalize this in a way not widely seen since the days of Dr. Price’s travels and the rise of processed foods in the American diet.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources: Entertainment News Australia
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
Both of my sons have gaps, but so does their father, so I had assumed it was hereditary. Interesting article!
love my butter, cream, eggs and grassfed meat but i’ll pass on the gap teeth, thanks
This is hilarious to me. I have tons of tooth problems, including gap teeth, and I got braces for them. No regrets though — looks much better this way IMO. Besides, they fixed my overbite and other problems.
I never got any wisdom teeth at all!