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Speech on Arthritis and Dental Structure
Draft of a speech given at a joint meeting of the AAAN and AAAA in Oklahoma City, in March 1949.
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It is indeed a great pleasure to address the joint meeting of medical and dental men. For the past few years, I have been associated in Los Angeles with two groups in particular that recognize the important contribution that each has to make to the general welfare of the public, and it is the concept of these two organizations that only through cooperation between the two professions can we understand the problems to which [our] two societies are devoted. Our societies likewise feel that the chemist and agronomist have contributions to make that must likewise be correlated. In these two societies, the AAAN and the AAAA, the concept that the specialized program of the one and the more general problem of the other must embrace a mutual understanding between all of these groups in order to best be able to approach our specific problems. A joint meeting between the General Practice Session of the L.A. County Medical Ass’n, acting as host, to the AAAA, the AAAN, the first District Dental Ass’n., of Los Angeles, and the So. Calif. State Vet. Ass’n., was held for the purpose of discussing the arthritides from the aspect of early diagnosis by the general practitioner, the classification by the AAAA, the role of nutrition from the standpoint of the AAAN, and the temperomandibular arthritides from the dental ass’n. and the veterinary association presented the arthritis from the standpoint of the meat animals, particularly the chicken. For the evening session, it was my privilege to discuss the experimental nutritional studies, particularly as they affect the bones and joints. Inasmuch as it is our concept that the arthritides represent a general metabolic imbalance of unknown etiology which affects all systems of the body, as well as the joints themselves, it is our concept that a thorough knowledge of the various fields represented is necessary to intelligently approach the problem of the arthritides. Beside the formal discussions that were given, appropriate exhibits were presented.
It is interesting to find that the veterinary nutritionist frequently practices a program of definite mal-nutrition for the specific purpose of giving the American public what it wants, to wit, the use of such drugs are throuricil, for the purpose of producing hypothyroidism in animals which causes them to grow at rapid immature rates over a greater period of life than is normal. From the standpoint of the farmer, it is very satisfactory if he can produce a 200# hog with but 3/4 of the food required to produce the average. Likewise, the poultry veterinarian is frequently called upon to produce a chicken with soft bones and tender meat, or an egg with a relatively thin shell so it can be broken easily by the hand, yet sufficiently hard shelled for shipping. A large animal vet called upon to take the fine steers from the ranges of your state and its neighbors and to produce a soft tender muscle for the elite meat trade that demands meat that is easy to cut. As the speaker in Los Angeles, after bringing out these points we do not know the effect of these foods on human nutrition. It is a problem which some day must be approached.
In a similar manner, the problem of fine reproduction was discussed with the brief statement that the problems of meat production and the problems of reproduction of the finest stock did not necessarily go hand in hand, for usually for the latter, every effort was made to give life sustaining foods to these animals.
The members of the dental society presented evidence that many times they were able to see in the oral structures evidence of physiological breakdown frequently in advance of sufficiently severe systemic disease to attract the attention of the clinician, and that only too frequently their observations were received by members of the medical profession not as they were helpfully intended, but more in the spirit of antagonism.
It has been my experience in dealing with the observations of well trained dental men that they have taken more seriously to heart the problems of nutrition than those of us in the medical profession, and they have learned the observe the changes brought about in the oral structures by various nutritional programs in a manner that is difficult for us to observe systemically.
I personally was early attracted to the importance of observing the oral structures in the experimental work which I was conducting, for it was here that I was able to observe the first evidence that my experimental animals showed of impending breakdown. When the dentist reports to a clinician that his X-rays show evidence of disturbance of the internal boney structure of the jaw bone, he is warning the clinician that a serious disturbance in metabolism exists, even though careful physical examination may not always reveal its inception. Those dentists who have learned the importance of nutrition have learned that much of dental disease can be controlled by the application of improved nutrition, to an astounding degree. Many of the leading dental scientists in universities throughout the United States are stressing the nutritional factors to their students.
The nutritional aspect of the treatment of human arthritis was particularly stressed by one of America’s foremost orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Joseph Risser. who has long been convinced that laminectomy for back injuries and splints and other operative procedures are of little avail until the systemic aspects of the problem are well under control. The factors of the dietary which enable a man to lay down good calcium are controlled primarily by a good digestion which will permit the proper assimilation, and are not only those obtained from a vitamin supplement that comes from good food itself. In order to clarify my position, I am going to [be] showing a few slides to show the importance [of the] relationship between the dental structures and systemic disease (choose slides).