Battle of the Bulge General said "Nuts"...You say "Nuts"

"Nuts" was the reply from an American General who was invited by Nazi Generals to surrender at the "Battle of the Bulge". At this point the future actually did look very bleak. It was a major "seige" of tens of thousands of american soldiers in one of the worst winters in European history.
These soldiers were husbands, "daddies", brothers, uncles, cousins, and somebody's neighbor whose future lives were still ahead of them. This brave reply was probably mostly given in faith. Fortunately, the weather improved and the fighers and bombers were able to drive the enemy back and eventually to defeat. It's a great story, but the moms, dads present and future, along with their children, grandchildren and more preset and future are faced with a powerful challenge even in today's modern world. This is the, mostly ignored, dental health problem that is brought upon almost all of us with an exasperating, expensive and even deadly disease, Dental Caries.
When the approximately 3 million residents of Utah were born, they didn't have any bacteria in their mouths, but according to a statement by the Dental Select dental insurance company, 99% of Utahns have had an experience with dental decay, from a bacterial infection in the mouth. It has been described as "infectious and transmissible". That seems to be an understatement. The cost of dental care in Utah for 2010 is estimated to be $960 million. It is "epidemic" in toddlers and sliding into being "pandemic" with senior citizens. An estimated 25% of the population will have lost all of their teeth by age 65. That's about 750,000 people. There are 32 teeth each which comes to the total of: 24,000,000 teeth lost. This "amputation" or "extraction" is one of the most dreaded dental procedures of all not to count the pain and expense. There are young children admitted to the Primary Children's hospital every week with extreme and dangerous infection stemming from advanced dental disease. The Pedodontic dental practices receive one of the highest levels of income in the dental profession. Almost all Pedodontists will be experienced in having to do the dental care for young children under general anesthesia due to the huge challenge with the extensiveness of the damage and the behavior problems. Most will do hospital dentistry for young children at least once per week. Some of their practices that are advertised for sale in California are asking prices into the 2 and 3 million dollars.
Most people feel helpless. They are victims of this unpredictable and seemingly uncontrollable disease. There as been a light at the end of the tunnel beginning in 2003 when the US Surgeon General issued a "National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health" to literally everyone calling it a "Wake-up Call" . It informed us that Dental Caries was "Preventable". In 2007 this was bumped up to "curable" and preventable, and in 2010 a promise of "Optimal Oral Health" and being "cavity-free for life" is now available.
Although most people are not even aware of this, it is huge! It has empowered all of us to now have the confidence to reply to this threat of a lifetime of suffering and expense with dental disease ......NUTS ! Our brave reply, given mostly in faith, will also affect our future lives and lives of our children and grandchildren present and in the future. Because of YOUR decision to "be cavity-free for life", freedom from being victimized by this disease can be enjoyed by all of your posterity also!