Want to straighten your teeth, avoid cavities, and have healthy gums?
Here is a plan for excellent oral health, straight teeth, and a more attractive face.
In his seminal work from 1939, dentist Weston Price traveled the world and documented how a traditional diet leads to excellent oral and fascial health while a modern diet leads to dental problems and disease.
Modern processed foods have high sugar content and little need for chewing, which causes degeneration and underdevelopment of the facial bones and teeth. Choosing mostly unprocessed foods that are lower in sugar and require chewing will solve most dental issues.
Chewing mastic gum daily will allow you to build the muscles and bones that have atrophied in your face. I chew this gum for 1-2 hours daily and it's helped tremendously to straighten my teeth and strengthen my jaw.
The modern solution to deal with underdeveloped faces is to use metal inserts like braces and retainers to forcibly expand the palate and straighten the teeth. Unfortunately, these instruments can cause more damage than good.
A new branch of dentistry, called Orthotropics, works to improve malocclusion (unaligned teeth) by focusing on tongue posture. This removes the need for external metals and expensive dentistry, and the process is simple.
Simply improve your tongue posture by pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth, similar to the position it's in when you make an "n" or "ng" sound. The practice is called mewing and it improves breathing and facial structure over time. This will also strengthen the muscles of your head and neck.
Tongue posture to a great extent actually determines the shape of your face!
By practicing good tongue posture and breathing mostly through the nose, we improve facial structure and breathe deeper.
If your nose is clogged, unclog it by closing your nostrils with your fingers and holding your breath for 5-10 seconds. Repeat this process until your nose clears.
Nasal strips that open the nasal passage can also help.
The O2 trainer by Bas Rutten is a tool to help you connect with your breathing muscles. Practice taking 30 deep breaths 1 time per day.
For a more detailed introduction to better breathing, check out my blog on How to Breathe.
The final component that will help you to fix your face is to practice good posture. Better posture balances bones, while worse posture uses muscles and ligaments to hold you up, which leads to chronic pain. When we focus on balance, better posture becomes easier and requires less effort than slouching.
“Be Tall” by imagining there’s a string at the base of your skull pulling you up.
Keep your nose below your ears so your head is balanced on your shoulders.
Fix Your Face Conclusion
By practicing these tips, you can improve oral health and facial structure! If you know someone dealing with poor oral health or facial development, please share this article with them!
I was a mouth breather for the majority of my childhood because I didn’t know any better! It’s now been close to 5 years since I’ve begun making an effort to nasal breathe, and while it has not been easy, my quality of life is much better now.
If you have questions, send me a message or comment below. Hope this helps! - Tom
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