There’s been a rash of jaw injuries in Taiwan. And Taiwanese dentists, in a recent sign-of-the-times move, have made a plea to the fast food industry to do something about it.

Yes…the fast food industry.

It turns out that all the sore and injured jaws the dentists are treating are a result of trying to stretch mouths around the humongous towering burgers that have become so popular in the fast food joints around town.

The problem, according to professor Hsu Ming-lung of the School of Dentistry at National Yang-Ming University, is that the burgers are exceeding eight centimeters (3 inches) in height. But the human mouth is designed to comfortably extend only four centimeters.

The result of stretching the mouth this far is stress on the joint between the jawbone and the temporal bone that runs in front of the ears.

There’s nothing good that can be said about trans-fat-laden over-processed fast foods. Eat a steady diet of them and heart disease and diabetes are surely in your future. But now we can add jaw injuries to that list.

When our noshing habits start causing physical injuries I think it’s probably a sign that it’s time to swear off the 3 inch plus monster burgers and make our own healthier versions at home. Agreed?

(Burger photo courtesy of Yoppy)

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