An NPR Best Book of
2017 that exposes our oral health crisis and the astonishing role
that teeth and oral health play in our society
In this brilliant
debut book, hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “a call for
sweeping, radical change,” veteran health journalist Mary Otto
looks inside America’s mouth, revealing unsettling truths about our
unequal society.
Teeth takes readers
on a disturbing journey into the role teeth play in our health and
our social mobility. Otto “doesn’t just dwell on the numbers,”
according to NPR, “she makes what could have been a turgid health
policy tome spark with outrage over the stories of people who have
suffered.” Her subjects include the pioneering dentist who made
Shirley Temple and Judy Garland’s teeth sparkle on the silver
screen; an up-and-coming beauty queen awarded thousands of dollars of
free cosmetic dental care; and Deamonte Driver, a young Baltimore boy
whose death from an abscessed tooth sparked congressional hearings.
Offering “an
astute examination of the complex, insular business of oral health
care” (Kirkus Reviews), Otto combines searing critique with
forward-looking proposals for reform, “sympathetically explor[ing]
a range of ideas for improving the current system” (New Republic).
Muckraking and paradigm-shifting, Teeth exposes for the first time
the extent and meaning of our oral health crisis.
