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The health benefits of straight teeth
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Posted on May 18 2004
Apart from the obvious benefit of a much nicer smile, a straight set of teeth comes with a great positive socio-psychological effect, according to Dr. Robert S. Howard.
“With a prettier smile comes a great deal of self-confidence, allowing a person to interrelate with others more willingly both socially and at work. A person who does not want to smile because of crooked teeth will most likely be less likely to attain a good social and business life,” he said.
Howard explains there are even more important benefits to having straight teeth. He said that overlapping or crowded teeth make it very hard to keep one’s teeth clean.
“Tooth brushing cannot reach the overlapped teeth, and even flossing there is difficult. This makes the probability of decay increase extremely. And thirdly, an even more important reason, crooked teeth affect the health of the supporting jaw bone and gums. In the process of chewing, as we bite down, we generate hundreds of pounds per square inch of pressure on our teeth. If all the teeth do not equally share this pressure, then the few that do will be knocked loose overtime, losing the supporting bone and gums. Then they will become loose and painful and need to be extracted,” he explained.
Howard is Saipan’s sole on-island orthodontist and has been a member of the American Association Of Orthodontists for the last 26 years.
