Your teeth have a lot to do with your nutrition and nourishment. You need to be well nourished for you to be healthy. Therefore, your overall health will suffer if most of your teeth are either unhealthy or missing. Here are the specific ways in which teeth aid in proper nourishment:
Ease of Swallowing
Solid foods come in shapes, sizes, and textures that cannot be easily swallowed. You have to break down the food into small pieces and lubricate it for ease of swallowing. If you have missing or unhealthy teeth, then you will begin to avoid foods that need a lot of chewing, such as meat, some vegetables, and cereals. You can improve your chewing experience by grinding food or modifying your diet, but that will only be a temporary measure. The permanent solution is to treat your dental problem or replace your missing teeth.
Ease of Digestion
Digestion of food starts in the mouth. Saliva contains the enzyme amylase, which breaks down starch in the mouth. The chewing action of your mouth stimulates the production of saliva. In addition, chewing food and breaking it down into smaller pieces increases the surface area available for the action of the enzymes. Thus, if you can't chew food properly, then you will not have adequate saliva in your mouth, and any starch you eat won't be properly digested. Even stomach digestion suffers if the food is not soft of broken down into tiny particles that digestive enzymes can act on.
Malabsorption of Nutrients
As discussed above, proper chewing is necessary to break down food into smaller pieces that digestive enzymes and stomach acid can act on. If the foods aren't properly digested, your body won't be able to absorb the nutrients; this is what is known as malabsorption. This means you can eat food with all the nutrients your body needs, but the body won't be able to extract some of the nutrients from the (improperly chewed food), and you will just excrete them.
What this means is that your health suffers if you live with damaged or missing teeth for a long time. There are different techniques for dealing with missing teeth, including dental bridges and dentures. However, many people agree that dental implants are the best for replacing missing teeth. Implants are durable, long lasting, natural looking, and have a success rate of over 95%. Consult your dentist, such as Dr. Sudharani V Chary, to fix your teeth and your health.
