Kahn_Ehrlich_Jaws_BookThe new book, Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic, from orthodontist Sandra Kahn, DDS, MSD, and world-renowned evolutionist Paul R. Ehrlich, takes a deep dive into how our jaws are evolving and the health risks this poses.

As Kahn and Ehrlich write, in this book intended for parents, our jaws are getting smaller and our teeth crooked and crowded, creating not only aesthetic challenges but also difficulties with breathing. Meanwhile, modern orthodontics has persuaded us that braces and oral devices can correct these problems. While teeth can certainly be straightened, the authors look at the underlying causes of this rapid shift in oral evolution and the health risks posed by obstructed airways.

Kahn and Ehrlich present the biological, dietary, and cultural changes that have driven us toward this major health challenge and propose simple adjustments that can alleviate this developing crisis. In addition, they present a major alternative to orthodontics that, they contend, promises more significant long-term relief.

Kahn is a graduate of the University of Mexico and the University of the Pacific. With over 25 years of clinical experience in orthodontics, she is 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.

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.

The book is published by Stanford University Press.