The principles of holistic dentistry, based on the research of Weston Price and Francis Pottenger, are as follows:

• Eat nutrient-dense whole foods, properly grown and prepared.
• Avoid root canals. If you have root canals that you suspect are causing disease, have them removed by a knowledgable dentist.
• Avoid mercury (amalgam) fillings. If you have amalgam fillings, have them removed by a holistic dentist who specializes in mercury filling replacement.
• Orthodontics should include measures to widen the palate.
• Extract teeth only when necessary, and then in such a way as to avoid leaving the jaw bone with cavitations, which can be focal points of infection.

CAPTION: Good dental health begins with the diet of the parents. The Samoan boy on the left was born to parents who ate nutrient-rich native foods. The Samoan boy on the right was born to parents who had abandoned their traditional diet. He has crowded dental arches, and will be more susceptible to dental decay.

A Comparison of the Diets

(Compiled from Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS)

A comparison of primitive groups which have shown a high immunity to dental caries and freedom from degenerative processes with the diets of modernized groups who have forsaken their native diets for the foods of commerce consisting largely of white flour products, sugar, polished rice, jams, canned goods and vegetable fats resulting in loss of this immunity to dental caries and in loss of freedom from degenerative processes. (Figures give the number of times the amount of minerals and vitamins which are found in primitive diets compared with modernized diets.)

*Not given

1. Minerals: Ca=Calcium, P=Phosphorus , Fe=Iron, Mg=Magnesium, Cu=Copper, I=Iodine

2. Fat soluble vitamins include A,D,E,K. Water soluble vitamins include the B vitamins (folate, pantothenic acid, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B6, B12) and vitamin C

Percentages of Teeth Attacked By Dental Caries in Primitive and Modernized Groups

* Note: All photos by Weston A. Price, DDS are copyrighted by the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Permission to use any of Dr. Price's photos or research must be obtained by contacting The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation.

Why are These People so Happy and Healthy?

"Stories have long been told of the superb health of the people living in the Islands of the Outer Hebrides, (Coast of Scotland)."

Nutrition of Isolated Gaelics:
"The basic foods of these islanders are fish and oat products with a little barley. Oat grain is the one cereal which develops fairly readily, and it provides the porridge and oat cakes which in many homes are eaten in some form regularly with each meal. The fishing about the Outer Hebrides is especially favorable, and small sea foods, including lobsters, crabs, oysters and clams, are abundant. An important and highly relished article of diet has been baked cod's head stuffed with chopped cod's liver and oatmeal. Their nutrition is provided by their oat products and fish, and by a very limited amount of vegetable foods. Lobsters and flat fish are a very important part of their foods. Fruits are practically unknown. Yet the physiques of these people are remarkably fine." Read more in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS.

Immunity to Tooth Decay:
Isle of Lewis, only 1.3 teeth out of every hundred examined that had even been attacked by dental caries. (1.3%)

Isle of Harris, 1.0%

Isle of Skye, Those living on primitive foods had only 0.7 carious teeth per hundred. (0.7%)

Nutrient Analysis of an Average Diet for Indigenous People in the Outer Hebrides:

Modernized Gaelic's in the Outer Hebrides Compared with Isolated Gaelic's

"One of the sad stories of the Isle of Lewis has to do with the recent rapid progress of the white plague. The younger generation of the modernized part of the Isle of Lewis is not showing the same resistance to tuberculosis as their ancestors." Read more in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS.

"[The brother on the left had] excellent teeth and [on the right] rampant caries. These boys were brothers eating at the same table. The older boy, with excellent teeth, was still enjoying primitive food of oatmeal and oatcake and sea foods with some limited dairy products. The younger boy, seen to the left, had extensive tooth decay. Many teeth were missing including two in the front. He insisted on having white bread, jam, highly sweetened coffee and also sweet chocolates. His father told me with deep concern how difficult it was for this boy to get up in the morning and go to work." Read more in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS

Top Row: Normal Development
"An examination of the growing boys and girls disclosed the fact that only one tooth out of every hundred examined had ever been attacked by tooth decay. The general physical development of these children was excellent, as may be seen in the upper half of [this figure]. Note their broad faces."

Bottom Row: Checked Development
"This is in striking contrast with the children of the hamlet of Tarbert which is the only shipping port on the Isle of Harris.. These Tarbert children had an incidence of 32.4 carious teeth out of every hundred teeth examined. The distance between these two points is not over ten miles.. [They have] access to modern foods, since it supports a white bread bakery store with modern jams, marmalades, and other kinds of canned foods."

The Health and Nutrition Analysis for Modernized Gaelics:

Nutrition of Modernized Gaelics
"In Stornoway, one could purchase angel food cake, white bread, as snow white as that to be found in any community in the world, many other white-flour products; also, canned marmalades, canned vegetables, sweetened fruit juices, jams, confections of every type filled the store windows and counters."

Read more in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS.

Immunity to Tooth Decay:

Isle of Lewis, In a count of one hundred individuals appearing to be between the ages of twenty and forty, twenty-five were already wearing artificial teeth.

Isle of Harris, 32.4%

Isle of Skye, 16.3% or twenty-three times as many teeth as the isolated Gaelics had been attacked with dental caries.

Nutrient Analysis of an Average Diet for Modernized Gaelics

Diet Comparison Primitive vs. Modern

Isolated Swiss had some of the finest physiques
in all of Europe!

In 1932 when Dr. Price visited the people of the Loetschental Valley in Switzerland, he found that no deaths had occurred from tuberculosis in the history of the valley. They had neither physician nor dentist, no policeman nor jail because they had no need for them.

It had been the achievement of the isolated people to build some of the finest physiques in all Europe.

Normal design of face and dental arches when adequate nutrition is provided for both the parents and the children. Note the well developed nostrils and lack of tooth decay.

"The isolated Swiss children, were remarkably healthy. The sturdiness of the child life permits children to play and frolic bareheaded and barefooted even in water running down from the glacier in the late evening's chilly breezes, in weather that made us wear our overcoats and gloves and button our collars. They ate whole rye bread, summer cheese (about as large as the slice of bread), which are eaten with fresh milk of goats or cows. Meat is eaten once a week." A delightful photo of the children barefoot on the side of the mountain can be found on the cover of The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation's Health and Healing Wisdom Journal, Winter 2006. Back issues are available. Become a PPNF member, support the work, and receive your own journals.

This is the beautiful Loetschental Valley about a mile above sea level. About two thousand Swiss lived here at the time of Dr. Price's visit in the 1930s.

Dr. Price writes in his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, “While the cows spend the warm summer on the verdant knolls and wooded slopes near the glaciers and fields of perpetual snow, they have a period of high and rich productivity of milk. The cheese contains the natural butter fat and minerals of the splendid milk and is a virtual storehouse of life for the coming winter."

Tooth Decay becomes Rampant on Modernized Food:

In the 1930's, Dental Caries was a major problem for school children in modern parts of Switzerland, with 85-100 percent of the population affected.

"In the modernized districts of Switzerland tooth decay is rampant. The girl, upper left, is sixteen and the one to the right is younger. They use white bread and sweets liberally. The two children below have very badly formed dental arches with crowding of the teeth. this deformity is not due to heredity." To learn more, read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS.

Health & Nutrition Analysis of the Isolated, Indigenous Swiss

The nutritional foods of the people of the Loetschental Valley:
Whole Rye Bread, Summer Cheese (about as large as the slice of bread), which are eaten with fresh milk of goats or cows. Meat is eaten once a week.

Immunity to Tooth Decay
In a study of 4,280 teeth of the children of these high valleys, only 3.4% were found to have been attacked by tooth decay. In the Loetschental Valley 0.3% of all teeth where affected with tooth decay.

Nutrient Analysis of an Average Diet for Indigenous People in the Swiss Alps:

Price, W. A., Dental Digest, 1933 July;pg. 278. (Some figures have been rounded up for simplicity)

Health and Nutrition Analysis for Modernized Swiss:

The Foods of Modernized Swiss
"...white-flour products, marmalades, jams, canned vegetables, confections, and fruits--all of which are transported to the district. Only a limited supply of vegetables is grown locally." Weston A. Price, DDS, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

"We studied some children here whose parents retained their primitive methods of food selection, and without exception those who were immune to dental caries were eating a distinctly different food from those with high susceptibility to dental caries.” Weston A. Price, DDS, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

Immunity to Tooth Decay
In of the 2,065 teeth 25.5% where attacked, many teeth had abscessed. Price, W. A. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 6th Ed., page 38.

Nutrient Analysis of an Average Diet for Modernized Swiss

Price, W. A., Dental Digest, 1933 July; 278. Some figures have been rounded up for simplicity)

Compare these figures to the Isolated Swiss:

In summary, the isolated primitive people in the Swiss Alps and in the Islands off the Coast of Scotland maintained a high degree of health and a freedom from tooth decay. Dr. Price found this to be true in all 14 countries he visited over a 10 year period during the 1930s.

His worldwide findings clearly showed that dental caries and deformed dental arches, resulting in crowded, crooked teeth and unattractive appearance, were merely a sign of physical degeneration, resulting from what he had suspected - nutritional deficiencies.

Dr. Price's classic volume Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is available through the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation. Its photographs illustrate in an unforgettable way the physical degeneration that occurs when human groups abandon nourishing traditional diets in favor of modern convenience foods.

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