Every time i visit my ancestral home  in Rukungiri i am amazed at how the kids  have straight teeth compared to their age mates in the city, and their parents are not worried about how their children’s teeth will turn out,regarding alignment.Then i am reminded of our grand parents who had all their teeth and never suffered from tooth decay unless one had ailments like diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

Dr.Weston A.Price , a colonial dentist visited Uganda in 1935 and made a good observation that the diets of the East Africans consisting of raw milk(Do not try this,you will end up with TB or Brucellosis) and high fiber foods contributed to good development of the face and jaws, with no cavities or tooth decay,compared to the urbanized populations in the US that were suffering from frequent tooth decay, whose diets were mainly made of processed foods.

So what does food have to do with straight teeth and faces? The hard diets full of fiber stimulate the jaws to grow and have all the teeth fitting in a straight line.The soft diets have less or no fiber and  do not challenge the jaws so one is likely to end up with crowded teeth,due to a small jaw(There are other factors that may make it worse  which we shall discuss another time.)

What can you do to avoid the expenses of aligning teeth in the future?Give your child crunchy foods  as early as possible.This will actually be helpful for the teething child as biting on something hard relieves the gums from the itch caused by erupting teeth.Avoid cutting the fruits  and vegetables  into small pieces for the child.Let them work hard to bite into fruit and cut off bite-size pieces to chew by themselves.

When its mango season,give the slightly ripe mangoes instead of the very ripe,so that they can crunch it down,and when its maize season,let them eat the maize on the cob.My favorite option is raw carrots daily.Not only are they crunchy but full of vitamins for organ function like better eye sight.Since children imitate adults,its only wise that the parents lead the way by  eating  the  same,that way the children will have good models for a favorable health lifestyle.You must practice what you preach to them or you wont see results.