Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

December 12-18, 201112 Feature United Kingdom Edition W hen I began re- searching the life and career of Sir Harry Baldwin, I didn’t think I would stumble across a seg- ment of his life that so greatly reflected today’s research; the relationship between diet and health; the immediate connec- tion between oral health and the body, and most recently, how diet affects the shape and size of modern human jaws. But although in today’s so- ciety these discov- eries are perceived as “new research”, as Richard Fowler, Godson of Mary Baldwin, explained to me during our interview, these ideas are in fact 100 year-old concepts that Sir Harry was exposing on a daily basis. Harry embarked on his campaign to publicise the im- portance of good oral health and how it can directly affect the health of the body and general development at a time when the population’s mouths were ravaged by dental diseases. It was obvious to Harry that something dras- tic had to be achieved to alter the state of the na- tion’s health and with little hesi- tation he launched a crusade on oral h e a l t h , starting at the basics of brush- ing, before progressing onto the complex function of saliva and the controversial subject of diet. Harry began his campaign- ing by captivating the audience during an address on the 22nd November 1915, where he en- lightened the audience on the subject of brushing and most importantly, gum brushing. By the time the address was over Harry had exerted himself as a brushing guru, revealing that gum brushing was the mira- cle cure in preventing infec- tion, pyorrhoea, gingivitis and chronic septic infections of the tooth sockets; his solution was simple: “Gums must be vigorously brushed with a stiff brush twice a day! If you find you have sore gums it means you must brush more!” Although his advice seemed to show little room for compassion, (the old saying of “you have to be cruel to be kind” springs firmly to mind) Harry didn’t once seem to step back from issuing instructions on how to maintain a good level of oral health; he would state how gum brushing pre- vented the formation of sub- gingival calulus, and he even went so far to proposing how salt becomes an antiseptic and can cleanse bleeding gums. In the end he knew that friction on the gums prevented con- gestion and kept them healthy and he had to share his knowl- edge if he had any hope of sav- ing the nation’s smiles. Mother Nature’s mouthwash Harry soon turned his atten- tion to theories as to why there was significant mal-develop- ment in the nation’s mouths; although development in this area would hardly seem like an area for concern, Harry knew too well that the mouth was the “gateway to disease” and could have a direct ef- fect on a person’s health: “We know that dental diseases are septic, putrid and poisonous… [and] an unclean mouth with decaying teeth and decay- ing gums supplies a constant stream of poison to the entire body and results in an untold amount of chronic illness, de- generation in various ways, premature old age and even death.” Harry understood the ur- gency of uncovering the rea- son as to why there were de- velopment issues throughout society; he came up with theo- ries such as starvation and poisoned food supplies, but the conditions were too wide- spread, affecting the rich and the poor, the country dwellers and the urban townspeople. He knew it had to be some- thing that all classes were subject to, but his answer was a controversial one; the trou- ble, he said, must have lain in the food. Commercial fabrication The uproar over Harry’s an- swer began during a speech on Tuesday 6th January 1925, where Harry, who was Vice Chairman of the Food Educa- tion Society, stated to the Food Education Society that white bread and white flour were the worst foods in the nations diet. Harry argued that during the milling process to make bread white each and every Vitamin B enriched grain is grinded to a point where all the miner- als, fats and phosphates are reduced to vanishing point; in effect the resulting product resembled something that had about the same nutritional value as cardboard. “The actual fact is that the bread and flour supplied to our people is a delusion and a snare. It is called the “staff of life” and so it might well be, but it is not now worthy of that title. All its vitamins and most of its proteids [sic] and its val- uable mineral salts are being needlessly and injuriously ex- tracted to make it white. Con- sequently vast numbers of our people are suffering from par- tial inanition and partial avit- aminosis [sic]. This can cause grave illness, eg beriberi… and carbohydrate poisoning.” “This a great causes for concern,” Harry solemnly stated, “phosphates of lime are a chief mineral constitu- ent of bones and teeth, and vitamins are essential for true development… without these, development is essentially stumped.” Although white bread was indeed the staple diet of the poor and the sole food for chil- dren, Harry launched into an unprecedented attack on the evils of white bread and over- cooked vegetables and boldly exclaimed that the only food worthy of eating was “food that had been unspoiled by commercial fabrication!” Drawing up a list of rea- sons as to why the nation had a deficiency of vitamins in our times, (including tinned foods, beer and the hand feeding of infants), Harry could see that the problem with the British diet was simple: vitamins were non-existent and the nation’s development and oral health was suffering as a result. The lion’s share Harry knew he needed to take decisive action and it wasn’t long before he recalled on experiments where lions, de- prived of vitamin-rich internal organs, suffered from cleft- palate and were crippled by rickets; he then spoke of the Esquimaux [sic] staple diet of raw seal meat and organs; their diet meant they were not only healthy, but had jaws and teeth that had developed in perfect condition; what’s more they were caries free. To Harry the results were A wonderful thing called hindsight Laura Hatton delivers the final instalment of the Harry Baldwin series Harry Baldwin’s speech on jaw development, image courtesy of King’s College London ‘Harry had exerted himself as a brushing guru, revealing that gum brushing was the miracle cure in preventing infection’ Durrant’s Press Cuttings, Morning Post, image courtesy of King’s College London