Tooth Talk - Making Connections,Then and Now: Indian Oral Health Ethnobotany
By Mary Ellen Vohnsky. RDH. MS
“Native American peoples had a
remarkable amount of knowledge of the
world in which they lived. In particular,
they knew a great deal about plants.
There are in North America (defined as
north of Mexico and Hawaii and Green
land) 31,566 kinds (species, subspecies,
varieties) of vascular plants: seed plants,
including the flowering plants (angio
sperms) and conifers (gymnosperms), and
spore-bearing plants, including the ferns,
club mosses, spike mosses and horsetails
(pteridophyes). American Indians used
2,874 of these species as medicines, 1,886
as foods, 230 as dyes, and 492 as fibers
... (1,190 species for a broad range of
other purposes). All told, they found use
ful purpose for 3,923 kinds of vascular
plants ... (and) 106 kinds of non-vascular
plants (algae, fungi, lichens, liverworts
and mosses).”1
You knew that. Did you know that
this knowledge included plants used for
treating oral health problems? OK, you
knew that too. What does all this have to
do with dentistry today?
Dental professionals and patients can
draw connections from the past to the
present (chew sticks and pine sap to Soni
care toothbrushes and prescription tooth
paste). Some of what we do in dentistry
today is similar to what American Indians
had been doing for millenniums.
What benefit might this have for you
at the Siletz Dental Clinic? Acknowledge
ment of the rich heritage of the oral health
American Indians created. Building a
desire for ownership of one's oral health.
Motivation to recreate with today’s tools
the oral health of the ancestors. Lastly,
pride, not only in a bright healthy smile
but in the means of obtaining that smile.
Some of the articles cited here were
written in the late 1800s. These writers de
scribed the lack of cavities and periodontal
disease they observed among American
Indians. Combined, these writers exam
ined thousands of American Indians.
The authors were unselfconscious
enough not to hide their surprise and
wonder, nor their racism. Today I expect
professionals to take steps to speak, well,
professionally. If that was professional
writing, even if it was 1 ()0+ years ago, it
was loathsome then and is now.
The writers of 100* years ago were
When I tell a patienuhat fluoride var-
surprised
at
the
absence
of
cavities
;«nd
num
.k-i
u
surprised at the absence of cavities and gum
nish tastes like tree sap, they laugh - until I
disease in American Indians. Europeans, in actually apply it to every tooth. The chemi
cluding the writers, were not fairing as well.
cally made version is the new varnish we
Generally speaking, adult Europeans
now use in the dental clinic. This varnish's
had cavities, gum disease and lots of miss
“flavor" goes away faster and the texture is
ing teeth. These European writers were
less clumpy-feeling and less visible.
interested in finding the reason for the
What does this have to do with the
good health of American Indians so they
past? Siletz Tribal people used to chew
could teach it to everyone else.
pine tree sap quids as we might chew gum
Well, it has taken dentistry a long time
today.4 Except back then, the chewing was
to recognize and “begin" to apply Ameri
to clean teeth.
can Indian plant knowledge to the preven
Today we add fluoride to pine rosin
tion of oral disease ... or any indigenous
and apply it to teeth to prevent decay.
peoples' knowledge of health care.
Recently, a teacher at Siletz Valley School
One common example of a connec
shared pine sap with his students and
tion we might make is the relationship
principal - and he still has his job.
between chew sticks and toothbrushes,
When oral health was observed
although this relationship is not as clear among American Indians back in the
as it might appear.
1800s, there was an absence of cavities
People from Africa are considered to
and periodontal disease/ This has been at
have introduced chew stick use into this
tributed to the diet of the time, the fibrous
country. That raises the question, when
and gritty foods Native people ate.6
does a practice become a cultural tradition?
American Indians had sweets, just
Are a few hundred years sufficient time to
not refined sugar and flours. Joe Scott,
earn that status? What do you think?
curriculum specialist at Siletz Valley
When it comes to chew sticks and oil
Early College Academy, is the one who
of clove, the authors Walter H. Lewis and
served pine sap to his principal. Along
Melody P.F. Elvin-Lewis in their book
with his students he also made “acorn
Medical Botany Plants Affecting Human
flour waffles.’’ He sweetened them with
Health, say chew sticks were “introduced"
“camas flour" and “huckleberries.”
here by people from Africa. Maybe chew
He said they tasted “just like candy.” He
sticks did not need introducing because
finished with, “Don’t get me wrong - I do
American Indians already had been using
understand that a diet of solid waffles and
them for centuries?
huckleberries would not be healthy, but it
For the Confederated Tribes of Siletz
sure beats a bowl of sugar-coated sugar-O’s
Indians, the plant that has a history of with sugar on top floating in a bowl of sugar-
being chosen as a chew stick was ocean
enhanced diary sugar beverage!” Go, Joe!
spray, since it does not burn well and
One writer, R.W. Leigh, AB, DDS,
grows its branches and trunks rather
wrote in 1927 after his study of 300 crania
straight. It was around for various work
of deceased Tribal people, “Structurally, the
uses, making its smaller chewable stems
teeth of aboriginal California are inferior to
easily available for oral hygiene use.
none.”7 He went on to diagnose “secondary
A newly picked ocean spray twig’s fla
attrition"* and posted photographs of ex
vor is mild and clean. Wait a few days and
amples of the level of attrition he found.
the flavor turns to what I imagine chewing
Another researcher, Charles R. Bo-
a dry 2x4 would taste like. Consider how
decker, DDS, FACD, examined another
long it might have taken someone with a
317 crania (believed to have lived 8(X)-9(X)
chew stick to clean all their teeth? Could
years ago) and found, “less than 3 percent
ocean spray bump your Dora/Diego or of dental decay.”9
Sonicare/spin brushes into the garbage?
He looked at the prevalence of “fis
Moving from a chew stick to a tooth sure decay." He attributed not finding
brush is a pretty obvious connection. How
any fissure decay in American Indians to
about pine sap? Are you thinking you
"early obliteration of the enamel fissures”
knew all along that fluoride varnish tasted
by “abrasion" from mastication.10
like tree sap? One brand of fluoride var
Fissure decay is the decay that begins
nish is made from pine sap,2 another is a
on the biting surfaces of our back teeth, the
chemically made version of pine rosin. '
first place we all get decay. It's fissure decay
lh,,, ,,i,nK ,r. ...
,
calants an. used to prevent. No need to
wear molars down to flat tabletops.
Wear or abrasion would shorten a
tooth. Wear could remove enough tooth
enamel to reach the pulp, where the nerve
lives. Once the pulp was exposed, pain and
infection set in. This tooth would require
removal to find comfort. Documentation
shows the plants and techniques for treating
this condition (i.e„ creosote).
Here are a few other plants and the
American Indian Tribes who used them
and what they used the plant for: Lakota
and Sioux used Amerian licorice for a
toothache; Montana/Cheyenne and La
kota Indians used blacksamson echinacea
to increase saliva flow; Mendocine Indi
ans used California poppy in a cavity of
a tooth for toothache; Tsimshian Indians
used Pacific yew for cancer; Salish Indi
ans used Oregon geranium for sore lips;
Choctaw Indians used southern bayberry
for a gargle for inflamed tonsils; and
Thompson Indians chewed round leaf
alumroot for mouth sores and gumboils.
See Moerman for more on medicinal use
of plants by American Indians. Find informa
tion looking by Tribe, use and plant."
What connections, then and now, can
you make? Come to the dental clinic, I
have a copy in my office. E-mail me at
toothtalk@ctsi.nsn.us.
Native American Ethnobotany. by Daniel E. Moer
man, 1998, Timber Press, Inc., p. 11
2
Per 3M ESPE Customer Care Center e-mail Cav
ity Shield, “white varnish contains an ingredient
which is a modification of naturally occurring rosin
(colophony) derived from pine tree sap."
3
ClearShield, DMG America’s, offered the following
when 1 asked them about pine tree sap: “Due to so
many children being sensitive or allergic to nuts,
we use synthetic rosin.”
4
Memory PF. Elvin-Lewis, Aug. 13, 2(X)8, e-mail.
5
Journal of Dental Research, Concerning Defects in
the Enamel of Teeth of Ancient American Indians,
by Charles R Bodecker, DDS, FACD, Journal of
Dental Research, 1930; p319.
6 Journal of the Royal: The Teeth of Ten Sioux Indians,
by Dr. Wilberforce Smith, 1894; 24:p. 313; Dental
Pathology of Aboriginal California. by R W. Leigh,
AB, DDS, Captian Dental Corp, USA, Dental
Cosmos, 1929; 71:756-768, p.758
Dental Pathology of Aboriginal California, by
R.W. Leigh, AB, DDS, Captian Dental Corp, USA,
Dental Cosmos, 1929; 71:756-768, p.768.
8
Dental Pathology of Aboriginal California, by
R.W. Leigh. AB. DDS, Captian Dental Corp, USA,
Dental Cosmos, 1929; 71:756-768, p.757.
9 Journal of Dental Research, Concerning Defects in
the Enamel of Teeth of Ancient American Indians,
by Charles F. Bodecker, DDS, FACD. p. 319
10 Journal of Dental Research. Concerning Defects in
the Enamel of Teeth of Ancient American Indians,
by Charles F. Bodecker, DDS, FACD, p. 319.
11
Native American Ethnobotany, by Daniel E. Moer
man, 1998, Timber Press, Inc.
1
April 2010
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Siletz News
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