“Something To Chew On” is a Health Manual first and foremost, but it is a Health Manual coming from new perspectives. It is these new perspectives that make all the difference.
It has been called the Health Manual with teeth. Although its primary focus is the Mouth, it introduces the Mouth as the Mirror of the body. This means that the mouth can be seen as an excellent predictor of the health of the body as a whole. Indeed the mouth maps in clear terms the overall status of health of the individual, - mind, emotion and body. In order to understand this, we must adjust our perspective. We must look at things in a different way.

 The First New Perspective,
- The Person As Partner
This approach is quite different to the usual approaches to dental or general disease. Traditionally the focus is on the teeth and what can be done to them. The dentist finds the problems and then fixes them. The person has only the minor role while the dentist has the major one. This model serves to keep the focus on the dentist and away from the person and so tends to promote dependence rather than independence.

This approach reverses the traditional approach, if you like, one where the person assumes the major role and the dentist the minor one. The person her/himself becomes the key factor in management with the dentist providing a guiding and helping role. It therefore promotes and encourages independence.