Healthy teeth make you happy to share your smile with the world. But there’s more to your smile than its beauty! There’s a lot of hard work going on, as well.
Teeth Are Designed for Healthy Eating and Digestion
Because humans are omnivores, we can eat both meat and plants. That’s why our teeth have different shapes—they’re designed to help us process different types of food.
- Incisors, our front teeth, have sharpish edges to help cut through meats and other firm foods when we bite.
- Canines, the pointed teeth, help tear food into bite-size portions.
- Premolars are flat topped teeth with two cusps, raised points which help grind food.
- Molars are the flat-topped teeth in the rear of the mouth. They have four cusps to grind and crush food into a paste-like consistency.
So: Incisors and canines bite and tear food into smaller pieces, which molars and premolars then crush and grind into a paste. Bite, tear, crush, grind—why all this food aggression? Because that’s the key to healthy digestion!
Chewing is the first step in digestion. Effective chewing:
- Starts the process of breaking food down into digestible particles.
- Increases saliva production. Saliva binds food particles so that we can swallow easily.
- Expands the surface area of food particles, which allows the digestive system to extract nutrients more efficiently.
When you’ve lost teeth or biting causes you pain, it can be hard to chew food as thoroughly as you should. Swallowing can be difficult. Digestion can suffer. In fact, healthy teeth are essential to healthy digestion.
Teeth Have Other Important Jobs As Well
- Speaking
Our teeth work with our tongues and lips to form many of the phonetic sounds which make up speech. Missing or misaligned teeth can affect speech development in children and pronunciation in children and adults.
- Creating a Healthy Bite
To eat efficiently—and comfortably—we need a healthy bite. If your dentist or orthodontist has diagnosed a malocclusion, it means that your teeth don’t fit together properly because of misaligned teeth and/or jaws. Biting and chewing put hundreds of pounds of pressure on your teeth and jaws, and a bad bite can mean damaged teeth and painful jaw problems.
- Shaping the Face
Just like our bone structure, our teeth help give shape to our faces. Missing teeth can affect the appearance of chins, lips, and cheeks. Replacing lost teeth with dentures, bridges, or implants (which look and function like natural teeth) can restore facial symmetry.
Teeth Are Only Up to the Job with Your Help
You’re in charge! Daily brushing and flossing, eating a healthy diet, and regular visits to your dentist for exams and cleanings will help make sure your teeth are able to perform their many duties.
If you’re experiencing tooth pain, if you have concerns about alignment, or if you’ve lost a tooth or teeth, talk to your dentist to learn how to get your teeth back to working their best for you—and be ready to share that beautiful, hard-working smile!
