Chewing and Choosing the Best Possible Dental Health

The obvious importance of being able to properly chew your food is the ability to digest your nourishment safely and easily. However, there are other reasons you should maintain your chewing ability which may not seem related to eating at all. Your mouth is a very complex biological machine with various parts designed to interact with each other and other areas of your craniofacial structure.  Park Ridge implant dentist, Dr. Loukas, will explain two of the lesser-known avenues by which your ability to chew can influence your physical well-being.

Healthy Jawbone

When your teeth are healthy and complete, their roots are embedded within your jawbone, which supports and nourishes your teeth with nutrients supplied by other parts of your body. When you bite and chew, these roots are stimulated, signaling your body to send the nutrients to your dental anatomy. Losing a tooth not only diminishes your ability to chew, but it also deprives your jawbone of the stimulation it relies on to receive an adequate amount of nutrition. In time, your jawbone may suffer side effects from the deficiency by deteriorating and losing its ability to retain the rest of your teeth, leading to further tooth loss down the road. Luckily, replacing your teeth with a dental implant-supported replacement can help restore you chewing ability as well as the root stimulation that your jawbone depends on.

Cognitive Ability

Swedish researchers recently studied a random group of 557 people aged 77 years and older to look at tooth loss, chewing ability, and a connection to cognitive function. The results (which the researchers acknowledge require more comprehensive testing to be conclusive) indicate that patients with trouble chewing harder foods (like steak and corn-on-the-cob) due to insufficient natural dental structure (i.e. teeth) were also considerably more likely to develop cognitive function issues such as dementia in later years. Experts theorize that the frequency with which you chew may influence the amount of blood sent to your brain which can impact your brain’s health and longevity.

Restore Your Chewing Ability with Your Park Ridge Implant Dentists

If your chewing ability, as well as the confidence in your smile, has been affected by tooth loss, speak with Dr. Loukas about your eligibility for dental implants. You can schedule an appointment with your Park Ridge implant dentist by calling Loukas General Dentistry at (847) 696-1919. Located in the 60068 area, we proudly serve patients from Park Ridge and the surrounding Chicago communities.