I remember when we were in medical school, a senior lecturer asked us a question being fresh clinical students which is the most important part of the body. Many of us were eager to say THE BRAIN, THE HEART, THE KIDNEY, and THE EYES. After hearing us out with our reasons, the senior lecturer went further to counter us one after the other and established the fact that ALL THE PARTS OF THE BODY ARE EQUALLY IMPORTANT.
Do you agree? If not, imagine a man without mouth or a mouth without teeth. We all need healthy teeth to survive in this our sojourn. Sometimes we don’t appreciate the value of something until we lose it. Though a great thinker would say we have 32 teeth and only one heart, brain and kidney. Well, one may be right, after all a man once said ‘don’t break a woman’s heart because she got only one, break her teeth because she got 32’’.The reasons why we need teeth in our body can’t be overlooked. What dentists do is to help you prevent dental diseases, promote good dental health and prolong your life by attending to your oral health need .They work by creating the healthy teeth you want or maintaining the healthy teeth you have through science, medicine and artistry!
Here are reasons why you need healthy teeth;
- CHEWING
- Chewing, the first stage of the process of digestion is the main function of the teeth and it entails biting, tearing, cutting and crushing of food substance.
- Food needs to be chewed and broken down before entering the blood so that the body can easily absorb nutrients from them. In the absence of teeth, digestion is hampered leading to significant disturbances in food absorption.
- Depending on their position and type, teeth have a role in cutting shearing, tearing or grinding of
N.B. if you are chewing with one side of the mouth or constantly feeding on soft diets or fluids because your teeth are not healthy, you need to see a dentist as soon as possible to avoid further complications
- PRONUNCIATION
- Teeth can help us pronounce accurately as they have an important role in the pronunciation of consonants.
- The proper positioning of teeth facilitates correct syllable pronunciation and prevents the tongue from straying during speech formation.
- When the front teeth are missing, the normal speech can be severely affected.
N.B. if you can’t pronounce these sounds conveniently [f, z, s, and t] etc. see your dentist
- AESTHETICS
- Teeth, especially those located in visible areas (incisors and canines) and sometimes premolars during wide smiles, have an important aesthetic role.
- The position, shape and shade of teeth have a pronounced impact in shaping each individual personality.
Some people frown their faces like zombies just because they don’t have good dentition and over time they have assumed the status quo
- THEY CAN MAKE YOUR SMILE BEAUTIFUL.
A better life they say starts with a beautiful smile and an attractive smile makes a lasting impression! A smile is a curve that sets everything straight
- When you smile, the first thing that most people notice will be your teeth. Since your incisors are your eight front teeth, they have a tremendous effect on how your smile looks. This leads many people to whiten their teeth, get braces, fix chips, and get dental work done
- If your smile is not becoming to you, then you should be coming to me, says the dentist.
- It takes 43 muscles to frown but only 17 to smile and most people have less respect for a boss with bad hygiene .i have never seen a smiling face that was ugly before.
N.B. if you can’t smile confidently in the public, please see your dentist
- TEETH HELP IN GUIDING THE TEETH WHILE CHEWING.
- Whenever you move your jaw to either the left or the right, canines act as the guideposts. If you slide your jaw to the right side now, you’ll notice that both the upper right and lower right canine teeth are sliding against each other.
- Absence of teeth makes the joint around the mandible and base of the skull called TMJ TEMPOROMANDIBULAR JOINT painful sometimes with Clicking sound and Jaw deviation
- SPACE MAINTAINERS
- Deciduous teeth can reserve spaces for permanent teeth. Once the adult teeth start to erupt, the baby teeth will fall out completely and give room for adult teeth. if the milk teeth are lost too early ,it may cause the adult to erupt in a haphazard manner because of the disruption in normal physiological process
7. SUPPORT THE FACIAL MUSCLES AT THE CORNERS OF THE MOUTH & KEEP THE TONGUE IN A NORMAL SIZE.
- The premolars keep the corners of your mouth from sagging inward. The importance of the face in social interaction is widely recognized.
- Loss of back teeth will cause pouch of cheek and also wrinkles on skin
- Enlarged tongue is normally seen in individuals with no teeth, there is indentation of the teeth on the tongue that means that the teeth limits the extent of the tongue ,so the tongue takes over the neutral zone of the teeth and becomes bigger in size
Why wait till tomorrow when your teeth can outshine others today?
- THEY SUPPORT YOUR CHEEKS.
- Without your molars, your cheeks would appear to be sunken into your face. Your back teeth play a key role in making your cheeks appear full and active.
- Without teeth there would be shortening of lower face size
- Empty mouth chewing, due to patient looking for normal position of the lower jaw
- The teeth play an important role in giving facial fullness and aesthetically pleasant facial shapes. Absence of teeth, due to any reason, not only hampers the chewing activity of the individual, but also affect the facial features to great extent, affecting the concerned person physiologically, emotionally and socially.
- FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
- Your smile, formed by your mouth at your brain’s command, is often the first thing people notice when they look at you. It is the facial expression that most engages others.
- With the help of the functions of teeth—which provide structural support for the face muscles—your mouth also forms your frown and lots of other expressions that show on your face.
- If we walk toward someone with a smile on our face, we are much more inviting than if we wear an expression of a scowl and pursed lips. Facial expressions can set the mood in many situations and usually tell us what people are thinking or feeling.
- We would not be able to display our emotions through our expressions without a mouth and its structures.
- Facial muscles, lips, teeth, jaws, cheeks all play an important role in creating facial expressions. We are able to make facial expressions without functions of teeth because of the complex muscular structure of the face.
- Human beings have more facial muscles than any other animal (we have 22 muscles on either side of the face)
- IF YOUR TEETH HURT, IT WILL AFFECT YOUR GENERAL HEALTH
- Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease” while ‘Oral Health describes the well-being of the MOUTH; including the TEETH, GUMS AND TONGUE. There is a link between your general health and your oral health.
- Individual can suffer pain, discomfort, or loss of speech, eating and esthetic functions and some psychosocial problems as It can prevent one from performing their normal social roles and loss of self-esteem, one can be prevented from going to school or becoming employed because of the problem, it may prevent from going to work or find means of survival in the society
- The general effect on the society too is great as the costs of dental conditions is huge, the time that people take off work to get treatment and care is another issue and this will in the long run will have effect on the economic performance and productivity of the country.