Jaws - by Sandra Kahn & Paul R Ehrlich (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

There's a silent epidemic in western civilization, and it is right under our noses. Our jaws are getting smaller and our teeth crooked and crowded, creating not only aesthetic challenges but also difficulties with breathing. Modern orthodontics has persuaded us that braces and oral devices can correct these problems. While teeth can certainly be straightened, what about the underlying causes of this rapid shift in oral evolution and the health risks posed by obstructed airways?

Sandra Kahn and Paul R. Ehrlich, a pioneering orthodontist and a world-renowned evolutionist, respectively, present the biological, dietary, and cultural changes that have driven us toward this major health challenge. They propose simple adjustments that can alleviate this developing crisis, as well as a major alternative to orthodontics that promises more significant long-term relief. Jaws will change your life. Every parent should read this book.

Review Quotes

Jaws is a must read for every parent on this planet. It addresses the causes of our chronic health crisis and tells us how to prevent it while correcting our faces, jaws and airways. Airway health will give the most added value for this generation's overall wellness."--Michael Gelb DDS, MS

"Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic is a well-researched book providing unique overview and insight in to a healthcare problem frequently overlooked by child healthcare professionals. Sleep is likely as important to health and well-being as food, but receives little attention. This book is an important read for all professionals who care for children. It also asks questions for possible future research in the field of pediatric obstructive sleep disordered breathing."--Stephen H. Sheldon, author of Principles and Practice of Pediatric Sleep Medicine

"About 90 percent of our children have bite problems. When more than 50 percent of a population has a problem it is an epidemic. Sandra Kahn and Paul Ehrlich present the causes and consequences of this epidemic affecting our young generations. This book educates the public and dental community on treating and preventing the underlying problem, instead of just aligning teeth."--German Ramirez-Yañez DDS, MDSc, MSc, PhD

"Drs. Kahn and Ehrlich's cogent narrative describing the structural, functional and behavioral changes in the human species truly challenges the cultural and educational orthodoxies in the West's disease management healthcare system. It begs the question, 'why did it take so long to bring this enlightened insight into mainstream thought with all the available evidence presented?' The answer to this question is meticulously answered in the very readable pages of this important work; read on!"--Mark A. Cruz, DDS, The Airway and Facial Development Collaborative

"Elucidation of what can be called a classic public health risk factor for a little understood disease, one with heavy influence of both social determinants and individual behaviors as well as their interactions."--Kirk R. Smith, University of California, Berkeley

"Every new parent should chew on this book. Who knew that how we suckle, chew and breathe as an infant can set us off on a course toward serious orthodontic treatment, a life of sleep apnea, cardiovascular problems and sudden death while sleeping? Kahn and Ehrlich clearly and comprehensively describe a hidden epidemic that impairs the health of far too many people, young and old. They explore the causes of the epidemic, and crucially, provide practical advice that helps you prevent the epidemic from affecting your child, or amazingly, how its progress can be reversed in childhood if it has already started. This book should be in every new mom's care package when she leaves the hospital."--John Peterson Myers, Chief Scientist, Environmental Health Sciences

"Every parent wants their child to grow strong and healthy. Orthodontics chosen for your child can be the most important choice to give a structural foundation to health. Sandra and Paul present important information that any parent should know about in order to give their children the cranial facial structure for beauty and health. This is a brilliant work by two brilliant scientists."--Mark Abrahamson, Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine

"Everyone who is concerned about health needs to have this information."--William M. Hang DDS, MSD

"Paul Ehrlich is the world's best-known and most distinguished ecologist, and one of the best known figures in any field of science. Now, teaming up with Sandra Kahn, he offers us his most personal and practical book to date. You'll discover the widespread consequences of how you carry out such seemingly mundane, automatic, and repetitive acts as breathing, smiling, and sleeping--and how your ways of doing those things affect peoples' perceptions of you. Read, enjoy, learn, and prepare to be astonished!"--Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel

"People have some power to protect their children from this serious and cryptic environmental problem. Jaws lays out both causes and cures."--Gretchen C. Daily, Bing Professor of Environmental Science, Stanford University

"Sandra Kahn and Paul Ehrlich clearly define and explain the hidden epidemic that exists around us. Emphasizing prevention and cure rather than symptom management, this book is a must read."--Dror Aizenbud, DMD, MSc, Rambam Medical Campus, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

"The specialty of orthodontics has the potential to lead the way out of this epidemic of chronic disease (including malocclusion). We need only read and understand this book first."--Barry Raphael, Head of the Raphael Center for Integrative Orthodontics

"This epidemic has important consequences for heart health. I'm delighted Jaws is bringing it home to both citizens and health care professionals."--Dr. John S. Schroeder, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University

"This manuscript looks beyond the flashy smile that so many of us pay our orthodontists for and asks the hard question: Why is it we are almost all born with the faces of angels, yet so few maintain that face value of our innate and inborn beauty? The answer revealed is intriguing, thought provoking and a much needed call to action to fight for the fullest physical potential for all our children. A must read!"--Simon Wong, BDSc., London School of Facial Orthotropics

"Your Oral Posture is your future."--John Mew, Head of the London School of Facial Orthotropics

About the Author

Dr. Sandra Kahn, D.D.S., M.S.D., is a graduate from the University of Mexico and the University of the Pacific. She has 25 years of clinical experience in orthodontics and has been part of the craniofacial anomalies teams at the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University. Her graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley was on physical anthropology and human craniofacial growth and development. She practices pediatric sleep apnea prevention and whole-body treatment, addressing body and oral posture to develop stronger jaws which fit all 32 teeth and house large healthy airways. She is an international lecturer, has published two books, Let's Face It and GOPex - Good Oral Posture Exercises!, and has translated Dr. John Mew's The Cause and Cure of Malocclusion into Spanish. She is currently the only Diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics that practices exclusively Biobloc Orthotropics, and is co-founder of the project zeroto15, which proposes addressing airway growth from pre-conception until 15 years through transdisciplinary teams that foster healthy lifestyles. Paul R. Ehrlich has been a household name since the publication of his 1968 bestseller, The Population Bomb. He is Bing Professor of Population Studies Emeritus and President of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. Ehrlich is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of the Crafoord Prize (an explicit substitute for the Nobel Prize in fields of science where the latter is not given), the Blue Planet Prize, and numerous other international honors. He investigates a wide range of topics in population biology, ecology, evolution, human ecology, and environmental science. Much of his current effort is focused on the mechanisms of human cultural evolution and ways of directing that evolution to ameliorate the human predicament.