Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic by Sandra Kahn and Paul R Ehrlich

A book about the genetic evolution on the jaw from a award winning Stanford scientist and author of over 50 books. The evolution of modern speech, instead of just grunts, led to an important change in human anatomy. The top of the larynx leading to our lungs dropped, making a larger air space above it and behind the tongue that can be used to greatly modify the sounds our exhaling air can make. This has huge advantages, but like many evolutionary advantages it carries disadvantages as well. Thus the advantages of walking on our hind legs is paid for in back pain and hernias, while those of being able to speak are paid for with a higher probability of choking to death since air and food travel the same pipe in the neck. Infants are spared this threat since the dropping of the larynx doesn't occur until about 2 years old, allowing infants to suck and breathe simultaneously.

The agricultural revolution had another impact. For hundreds of millennia human women breast fed their children for years, eventually weaning them on the tough, chewy foods they themselves ate. Human developmental systems evolved so that the results of this regime were a healthy pattern of skull and jaw development. But with the evolution of agriculture these patterns began to change. Softer foods for weaning became available. Thus one result of the agricultural revolution has been an upsurge in serious oral problems, related to the soft foods onto which young infants in agricultural societies are usually weaned. Early weaning may lead to distorted patterns of muscle use that change the basic patterns of oral development.

The effects can easily be seen by comparing the facial structures of rich and poor people from a few centuries ago. The jaws of the rich tend to be underdeveloped, palates narrowed, and the airways more compressed.

Ehrlich and Kahn argue that education is urgently needed, not only within the medical and dental communities, but also among the broader public. They have thus written an engaging book that outlines the basic history of the problems, comparing different societal norms around the world to support their arguments. They do not present a "fix," but instead argue that some simple changes to infant dietary recommendations and childhood nutrition can have significant adult benefits.

Table of Contents:
1. Primitive Big Mouths to Modern Malocclusion
2. Mostly Chewing
3. The Diet, Posture, and Housing Revolutions
4. Appearance
5. Development and Oral Posture
6. Disorders of Breathing and Sleep
7. What Can You Do?
8. Orthodontics, Dental Orthopedists, Orthotropists, and Forwardontists
9. Changing Culture, Improving Health

Review Quotes:
"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


"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


"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


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


"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 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

"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


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

"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

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.

Stanford University Press

Pub Date: October 19, 2021

0.5" H x 8.8" L x 5.9" W

216 pages

paperback