Weston Price
Encyclopedia
Weston Andrew Valleau Price (September 6, 1870 – January 23, 1948) was a prominent dentist
Dentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...

 known primarily for his theories on the relationship between nutrition, dental health, and physical health. He founded the Research Institute of the National Dental Association, which later became the Research Section of the American Dental Association
American Dental Association
The American Dental Association is an American professional association established in 1859 which has more than 155,000 members. Based in Chicago, the ADA is the world's largest and oldest national dental association and promotes good oral health to the public while representing the dental...

, and served as its chair from 1914-1928.

Initially Price did dental research regarding the then broad consensus in the dental and medical community of the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the relationship between endodontic therapy
Endodontic therapy
Endodontic therapy is a sequence of treatment for the pulp of a tooth which results in the elimination of infection and protection of the decontaminated tooth from future microbial invasion...

 and pulpless teeth and broader systemic disease which by that time was known as focal infection theory which resulted in what would be later called an orgy of extractions of tonsils and teeth. The quality of this and similar research began to be questioned in the 1930s, resulting in focal infection theory falling out of favor and pushed to the margins of dentistry by the 1950s.

By 1930 Price had shifted his interest from focal infection to nutrition. In 1939 he published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, detailing his global travels studying the diets and nutrition of various cultures. The book concludes that aspects of a modern Western diet (particularly flour and sugar) caused nutritional deficiencies that were a root cause of many dental issues and health problems. The dental issues he observed include the proper development of the facial structure (to avoid over-crowding of the teeth) in addition to dental caries. This work received mixed reviews, and continues to be cited today by proponents of many different theories, including controversial dentistry and nutritional theories.

Early years

Born in Newburgh, Ontario, Canada on September 6, 1870 Price graduated from the dental college of the University of Michigan in 1893 and began to practice in Grand Forks, North Dakota but later moved to Cleveland, Ohio that same year.

Technology development

Price conducted various research efforts to develop technological solutions to dental diseases. He invented and improved the pyrometer dental furnace for the manufacture of porcelain inlays that included the fusion of metal and porcelain. Price also researched improvements in producing dental skiagraphs in the early 1900s and developed special instruments for studying the effect of x-rays on cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

. Much of this work was presented at various professional societies in which he had membership. His work with radiographs include pioneering a new radiological technique for studying teeth as well as using radiographs to analyze endodontically treated teeth though his 1904 paralleling and bisecting angle techniques would not be become popular until the work of Dr. Gordon Fitzgerald of the University of California in the late 1940s. The initial practice of using radiographs in dentistry is regarded as part of the beginning of a new era of dentistry, as dentists could finally see evidence of past dental treatments.

Nutrition

Beginning in 1894 Price started to consider diet as the primary cause factor of tooth decay and in 1925 was attracted to calcium metabolism
Calcium metabolism
Calcium metabolism or calcium homeostasis is the mechanism by which the body maintains adequate calcium levels. Derangements of this mechanism lead to hypercalcemia or hypocalcemia, both of which can have important consequences for health....

 when he became an active student of nutrition. In the early 1930s, Price's research suggested "vitamin B" and mineral salts were important dietary components to prevent caries.

In 1939 Price published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, a book that details a series of ethnographic
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

 nutritional studies performed by him across diverse cultures, including the Lötschental
Lötschental
The Lötschental is the largest valley on the northern side of the Rhône valley in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It lies in the Bernese Alps, with the river Lonza running down the length of the valley from its source within the Langgletscher....

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

, Polynesians
Polynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...

, Pygmies, and Aborigines
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

, among many others. The photographic material and notes collection in this research "included over 15000 original photographs, 4000 lantern slides (about half of which are hand colored) and a library of strip film lectures."

In the book, Price claimed that various diseases endemic to Western cultures of the 1920s and 1930s - from dental caries
Dental caries
Dental caries, also known as tooth decay or a cavity, is an irreversible infection usually bacterial in origin that causes demineralization of the hard tissues and destruction of the organic matter of the tooth, usually by production of acid by hydrolysis of the food debris accumulated on the...

 to tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 - were rarely present in non-Western cultures. He argued that as non-Western groups abandoned indigenous diets and adopted Western patterns of living they also showed increases in typically Western diseases, and concluded that Western methods of commercially preparing and storing foods stripped away vitamins and minerals necessary to prevent these diseases. His claims extended from physical degradation to moral degradation as well.

The 1939 foreword to the book, written by physical anthropologist Earnest A. Hooton
Earnest Hooton
Earnest Albert Hooton was a U.S. physical anthropologist known for his work on racial classification and his popular writings such as the book Up From The Ape...

, lauded Price's work for confirming previous research that dental caries were less prevalent in "savages" and attempting to establish the etiology for this difference. In 1940, a review in the Canadian Medical Association Journal
Canadian Medical Association Journal
The Canadian Medical Association Journal is a general medical journal that is published biweekly by the Canadian Medical Association . It covers research and ideas aimed at improving health for people in Canada and globally. CMAJ publishes original clinical research, analyses and reviews, news,...

called the book "a masterpiece of research", comparing Price's impact on nutrition to that of Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a famous Russian physiologist. Although he made significant contributions to psychology, he was not in fact a psychologist himself but was a mathematician and actually had strong distaste for the field....

 in digestion. In 1950, a review in the journal The Laryngoscope went as far as to say that "Dr. Price might well be called "The Charles Darwin of Nutrition" while describing Price's documentation of his global travel and research in a book. However, other reviews at the time were less sympathetic with a review in the Scientific Monthly
Scientific monthly
Scientific Monthly was a science magazine published from 1915 to 1957. Psychologist James McKeen Cattell was the original founder and editor. In 1957 Scientific Monthly was absorbed by Science....

noting some of his conclusion went "much farther than the observations warrant," criticizing Price's controversial conclusions about morality as "not justified by the evidence presented" and downplaying the significance of his dietary findings. Likewise, a review in the Journal of the American Medical Association
Journal of the American Medical Association
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...

also disagreed with the significance of this nutritional research, noting Price was "observant but not wholly unbiased" and that his approach was "evangelistic rather than scientific."

A 1981 editorial by William T. Jarvis published in Nutrition Today, was more critical, identifying Price's work as a classic example of the "myth of the healthy savage," which holds that individuals who live in more technologically primitive conditions lead healthier lives than those who live in more modern societies. The review noted that Price's work was limited by a lack of quantitative analysis of the nutrition of the diets studied and the overlooking of alternative explanations for his observations including malnutrition leading to the lack of caries in primitive societies and overindulgence of the Western diet, rather than the diet itself, as cause for poorer health. The review makes the assertion that Price had a preconceived positive notion about the health of "primitive" people, which led to data of questionable value and conclusions that ignored important problems known to afflict their societies, such as periodontal disease
Periodontal disease
Periodontitis is a set of inflammatory diseases affecting the periodontium, i.e., the tissues that surround and support the teeth. Periodontitis involves progressive loss of the alveolar bone around the teeth, and if left untreated, can lead to the loosening and subsequent loss of teeth...

.

Endodontics and focal infection

Price spent 25 years of his career performing research on pulpless and endodontically
Endodontics
Endodontics is one of the dental specialties recognized by the American Dental Association, Royal College of Dentists of Canada, and Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons, and deals with the tooth pulp and the tissues surrounding the root of a tooth...

 treated teeth, which supported the theory of focal infection, which at that time held that systemic conditions including complexion, intestinal disorders, anemia among others could be explained by infections in the mouth. This theory also held that infected teeth should therefore be treated by dental extraction, rather than undergo root canals, to limit the risk of more general illness. His research, based on case reports and animal studies
Animal studies
Animal studies is a recently recognized field in which animals are studied in a variety of cross-disciplinary ways. Scholars from fields as diverse as: art history, anthropology, biology, film studies, geography, history, psychology, literary studies, museology, philosophy, and sociology; and from...

 performed on rabbits, claimed to show dramatic improvements after the extraction of teeth with non-vital pulps. Price's research fit into a wider body of testimonials in the dental literature of the 1920s, which contributed to the widespread acceptance of the practice of extracting, rather than endodontically treating, infected teeth. Despite contentions in a 1927 review of Price's work of "faulty bacterial technique" in Price's 1925 publication, Dental Infections and related Degenerative Diseases, Price's publication Dental Infections, Oral and Systemic was used as a reference in textbooks and diagnosis guides published in the mid 1930s.

By the 1930s, the theory of focal infection began to be reexamined, and new research shed doubt on the results of previous studies. A 1935 Journal of the Canadian Dental Association article author would call Price radical while citing his comment in Dental Infections, Oral and Systemic of "continually seeing patients suffering more from the inconvenience and difficulties of mastication and nourishment than they did from the lesions from which their physician or dentist had sought to give them relief" as an example of one of 'the authorities that emphasize my contentions for conservatism' with regards to tooth extraction and one researcher in 1940 noted "practically every investigation dealing with the pulpless teeth made prior to 1936 is invalid in the light of recent studies" and that the research of Price and others suffered from technical limitations and questionable interpretations of results.

Three years after Price died in Santa Monica, California, a special review issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association confirmed the shift of standard of care from extraction back to endodontical dentistry. In terms of more modern research, Price's studies lacked proper control groups, used excessive doses of bacteria, and had bacterial contamination during teeth extraction, leading to experimental biases.

Legacy

In 1994 George E. Meinig published Root Canal Cover-up Exposed which resurrected the outdated studies of Rosenow and Price, raising the concern that patients hearing about these studies might view them as new and reliable. A book review in the Annals of Dentistry critical of Meinig's book noted Meinig based his ideas entirely on Price's 1923 Dental Infections, Oral and Systemic, and that Meinig's book suffers from a lack of professional editing, makes unsubstantiated claims, confuses basic terms (such as infection and inflammation), and expands into areas unrelated to the main topic to the point the reviewer ends the review with the comment "I wonder how the serious researcher Weston Price would have reacted to the way his work has been presented." The review also points out that Price's work has been well discussed and has not been covered-up, and notes that although Price's theories were later supplanted by subsequent research that found endodontic treatment is safe and effective, his focus on the biology of teeth and infection is still relevant in more modern dentistry as some clinicians have placed more emphasis on technology and poorly tested procedures for the treatment of infected teeth.

More recently the Weston A. Price Foundation was co-founded in 1999 by Sally Fallon and nutritionist
Nutritionist
A nutritionist is a person who advises on matters of food and nutrition impacts on health. Different professional terms are used in different countries, employment settings and contexts — some examples include: nutrition scientist, public health nutritionist, dietitian-nutritionist, clinical...

 Mary G. Enig
Mary G. Enig
Mary Gertrude Enig, PhD is a nutritionist and early trans fat researcher known for her unconventional positions on the role fats play in diet and health...

 to disseminate the research of Dr. Weston A. Price. This foundation has been criticized by health advocates, such as Stephen Barrett
Stephen Barrett
Stephen Joel Barrett is a retired American psychiatrist, author, co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud , and the webmaster of Quackwatch. He runs a number of websites dealing with quackery and health fraud. He focuses on consumer protection, medical ethics, and scientific...

 of the Quackwatch
Quackwatch
Quackwatch is an American non-profit organization founded by Stephen Barrett with the stated aim being to "combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct" and with a primary focus on providing "quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere."...

 website, on grounds that the core assumptions of Price's original work are incorrect and contrary to contemporary medical understanding. The Foundation has written a rebuttal to Barrett's claims. William T. Jarvis' article, "The Myth of the Healthy Savage" noted that his work on primitive diets is still widely sourced by dentists who emphasize nutrition, but argued that it had shortcomings that Price overlooked due to a steadfast ideologically motivated adherence to the notion that the modern diet led to physical degeneration. The foundation has written a rebuttal to the arguments contained within the article, that have also been raised by other critics. Another foundation, originally known as the Weston A. Price Memorial Foundation, the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation
Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation
The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation is a U.S. 501 non-profit organization established "to provide the public and the healing professions with historical and anthropological findings, and up-to-date, accurate scientific information on nutrition and health." Founded in 1952, it was first...

 (PPNF) was established in 1952 as a non-profit organization that serves as the guardian for the archived material from the research of Weston A. Price and medical doctor Francis M. Pottenger, Jr.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Weston Price, OCLC
OCLC
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...

/WorldCat
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...

 encompasses roughly 10+ works in 50+ publications in 4 languages and 1,000+ library holdings.
  • Dental Infections, Oral and Systemic (1923) Penton publishing company; Cleveland, OH
  • The Relation of Light to Life and Health: Some Biochemical and Clinical Aspects Cleveland, Ohio (1926)
  • Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects (1939) Paul B. Hoeber, Inc; Medical Book Department of Harper & Brothers

Journal articles
  • 1914. "Some contributions to dental and medical science," Dental Summary, 34:253
  • 1915. "Are Endamebae Important Factors in The Etiology Of Pyorrhea Alveolaris? A Study of Their Habits" The Journal of the National Dental Association Vol. 2, No. 2, pg 143-165
  • 1918 "A Report of Laboratory Investigation of the Physical Properties of Root Filling Materials and the Efficiency of Root Fillings for Blocking Infection from Sterile Root Structures" Research Department Joura N.D.A. pg 1260-1280.
  • 1918 "Letter on root-canal operations in the US army" reprinted in Journal of dental research 1919 pg 329
  • 1925. "Dental Infections and related Degenerative Diseases" J Am Med Assoc 1925;84(4):254-261.
  • 1925 (With Buckley, JP (negative)) Buckley-Price Debate: Resolved That Practically All Infected Pulpless Teeth Should Be Removed. JADA, 12:1499-1522, December 1925. 11.
  • 1930. "Seasonal Variations in Butter-fat Vitamins and their Relation to Seasonal Morbidity, Including Dental Caries and Disturbed Calcifications"; Journal American Dental Association, Vol. 17, May, Bulletin 103)
  • 1930. "Some Contributing Factors to the Degenerative Diseases, with Special Consideration of the Role of Dental Focal Infections and Seasonal Tides in Defensive Vitamins"; Oct., Nov., Dental Cosmos, Bulletin 107.
  • 1931. "New Light on the Control of Dental Caries and the Degenerative Diseases." Journal American Dental Association 18, 1189
  • 1931. "A New View of Health and Disease Based on the Rise and Fall in the Levels of Life with Cycles in Vitamin Tides"; American Journal of Public Health, June, Bulletin 111.
  • 1932. "Control of Dental Caries and Some Associated Degenerative Processes Through Reinforcement of the Diet with Special Activators" Journal American Dental Association Aug., 19, 1339–1369
  • 1932. "Evidence of a need for fluorine in optimum amounts for plant and animal growth, and bone and tooth development, with thresholds for injury", J. Dent. Res. 12 545;
  • 1933. "Additional Light on the Etiology and Nutritional Control of Dental Caries with its Application to each District showing Immunity and Susceptibility." Journal American Dental Association 20, 1648
  • 1936. "Eskimo and Indian field studies in Alaska and Canada" Journal American Dental Association, 23:417

See also

  • Thomas L. Cleave
    Thomas L. Cleave
    Thomas Latimer Cleave was a surgeon captain who researched the negative health effects of consuming refined carbohydrate which would not have been available during early human evolution. Known as `Peter' to his friends and colleagues, Cleave was born in Exeter in 1906, and educated at Clifton...

  • Robert Corruccini
    Robert Corruccini
    Robert Spencer Corruccini is an American anthropologist, distinguished professor, Smithsonian Institution Research Fellow, Human Biology Council Fellow , and the 1994 Outstanding Scholar at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale...

  • Albert Howard
    Albert Howard
    Sir Albert Howard was an English botanist, an organic farming pioneer, and a principal figure in the early organic movement. He is considered by many in the English-speaking world as the father of modern organic agriculture....

  • Robert McCarrison
    Robert McCarrison
    Sir Robert McCarrison, MA, MD, DSc, LLD, FRCP was a Northern Ireland physician and nutritionist, who was made a Companion of the Indian Empire in 1923, received a knighthood in July 1933, and was appointed as Honourable Physician to the King in 1935.McCarrison was born in Portadown, in County...

  • Michael Pollan
    Michael Pollan
    Michael Pollan is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. A 2006 New York Times book review describes him as a "liberal foodie intellectual."...


Sources

  • Price, Weston A. Dental Infections, Oral and Systemic & the Degenerative Diseases, Vol. 1 & 2 (1923).

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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