03/06/2023
One of the keys to staying young is maintaining your jaw bones. They are the support structures for your face.
When you look at a face, your brain is judging many complex components of a person’s physiology.
Deep messages tune us to understand that these structures guide us to breathe, chew food, and communicate.
Did you know movement is a nutrient? The many problems that we see in our jaws (crooked teeth,and forward head posture) stems from not using our jaws enough or correctly.
A recent study found new information about the cellular and molecular changes that enable bone to adapt to changes in mechanical stress.
The researchers created a novel mouse model of increased mastication in which mice were fed harder foods to increase chewing force and predicted if increased chewing directly led to changes in jawbone structure using a computer simulation.
Bone tissue is continuously restructured in response to changes in applied force, such as those associated with exercise and locomotion. Examining how the structure of the jawbone varies with masticatory force may illuminate the mechanisms that lead to the reconstruction of bone tissue.
In other words, foods that require more chewing force may lead to increased bone formation and impact the shape of the jawbone.
The Japanese researchers state:
“Our data indicate that masticatory force can prompt changes in facial structure by modulating the function of cells that regulate bone reconstruction. This discovery -- that increased chewing itself can directly change the shape of the jawbone"
So physical inputs including foods that require heavy chewing allow the jaw to maintain its youthful structure.
However tongue posture which include suctioning of the back of the tongue to the soft palate maintains the width of the roof of the mouth.
Nasal breathing is the other physical input that mechanically stimulates the upper jaw. When you breathe through the nose the maxilla pulsates in and out, which helps to physically maintain bone.
Chew, breathe, and swallow correctly for younger faces.
Have you noticed changes to your teeth or jaws?
