When we think about reasons people choose to straighten their teeth more often than not, people assume it’s all to do with vanity and that the only benefit of straightening your teeth can be to make yourself look more visually appealing. And yes, in some cases teeth straightening does just come from a place of image but for other teeth straightening have serious long-term health benefits.
Straighter teeth are easier to clean
Yes! This is actually true! Cramper teeth are tricky to manoeuvre around – just as when you’re trying to clean out and clear up that bottom kitchen drawer and it’s full of bits and pieces clumped together, tricky to sort through and round.
Overlapping, crapped teeth are harder to clean than those that are sorted out into straight piles. The little tiny creases and crevices that are created by overlapped teeth over perfect hidden spots for bugs and bacteria to grow. But more than that they’re harder to clean too! It’s much harder to get your tooth brush to reach these hidden spots and it’s more difficult trying to manoeuvre floss or interdental brushes into the gaps too.
When teeth sit flush and perfectly aligned that offer a really easy cleaning ground. You already know how much nicer it is to clean a draw that’s already sorted into perfect compartments – think of it as the same as that.
Misalignment could be causing you other issues
Do you suffer from nighttime teeth grinding? Do you have a sore, tense jaw? Do you get headaches and not really know why? Hundreds of people have issues with alignment and don’t even realise they have it. And what’s even more is they don’t realise the implications misalignment could be having on their health. For so many people teeth grinding and migraine are linked and caused by the misalignment of the top and bottom teeth. For most people this can be super easily fixed with orthodontic treatment such as Invisalign in St John’s Wood which could work as quickly as six months.
Tummy problems?
Now the phrase IBS gets thrown around alot these days and if you have any issues relating to stomach pain, bloating, unusual stoles you should be paying a trip to your GP and asking for a set of bowel tests done. But how we chew our food is massively important in the function of our digestive system and when teeth aren’t aligned correctly it has small but mighty impacts on the way we chew foods and thus the way we digest them. The act of chewing itself is what sets off the body’s natural way of triggering digestion -Saliva. Salvia isn’t just there for no reason, it actually contains the first set of acids needed in the breakdown of food before it gets into the digestive tract! How clever? Having teeth that are aligned correctly will allow for better chewing. Again alignment issues such as these can be resolved with Invisalign in St Johns Wood. There’s also more and more evidence being reported to support the connection between brain and gut health and making sure you have a happy gut will help maintain a happy brain.
