Straight teeth – Beauty or Health?
Until about 10 years ago, beauty ideals were only present in glossy magazines, on television and at the cinema, like a distant unattainable dream.
Our everyday life was full of real people. With the arrival of social media, things started shifting. Filters, celebrities on social media, influencers, fitness models, are now a part of our everyday lives. They are everywhere on our phones. People spend an average of 2.5 hours a day on social media. Looking good, young, healthy has never seemed more important to some people. What better way to looking amazing than a beautiful, white smile?
But is it that important? We cannot let ourselves be ruled by these ideals of beauty that are projected unto us daily through our little screens. As a society and as humans, we must believe that functionality, health and comfort take precedence over our physique.
Yes, a beautiful smile is amazing for our happiness and sense of self-worth, but it has much deeper benefits and here are some of them.
Straight teeth accumulate less plaque and bacteria. Aligned dental structures will be less retentive to any sort of accumulation and therefore create a healthier mouth. Less bacteria means healthier saliva and healthier gums. This is where things get interesting.
It has been proven by multiple studies that healthier gums go hand in hand with healthier blood vessels and heart. Now that’s important. There is a correlation between heart disease and gum disease and having healthy gums will help promote being healthy in general.
On the long term, dental crowding can cause gum disease because of the difficulty of cleaning properly and gum disease can lead to premature teeth loss. Losing teeth greatly affects our well-being and quality of life by not being able to chew and eat properly. This is why it is so important to preserve teeth and replace them when missing.
Teeth that are crowded are also more prone to decay. Because they are so much harder to clean, teeth that are too close together will more often have cavities. Every time a cavity is filled, a portion of the tooth structure is destroyed in order to clean out the infected dental tissue and the tooth ends up being more fragile than if it had been intact. With time, teeth that are restored over and over again need more permanent, expensive and extensive repair like root canals, posts and crowns. Aligned teeth will have less cavities and promote dental health.
Benefits of a beautiful smile go way beyond beauty and youth. Health and dental health are the most important advantages of having straight teeth.