Dental braces are a huge deal. For kids, braces mean a lifetime of imaginative nicknames and for parents they're a constant source of anguish and monetary troubles. But, do the braces help at all?
Mike Mew is a controversial orthodontist who claims that you don't need bracers to fix crowded teeth; simply correct your lower jaw position and you'll also be fixing a lot of other problems, including posture-related ones and the ones related to narrowing of the nasal passages. To me, the idea itself would have sounded preposterous had I not learned what I know about pneumonia, namely the fact that we have a premium air filtration system in our skull, it's just that we never use it because we keep our mouth open to breathe.
According to Dr. Mew, all it takes is keeping your mouth shut and your lower jaw teeth will align with the upper jaw's ones, bringing them in their proper position and also giving you a prominent jawline. Dr. Mew claims this fixes gum and root exposure problems as well, since the teeth get squeezed snugly into their resting spaces in the gums instead of being allowed to hang freely.
I found myself blathering less and less since I discovered this principle of keeping your mouth shut as a way to clear out runny nose and walking pneumonia. Once I heard Dr. Mew talk about expanding nasal airways by bringing the lower jaw up, I doubled my efforts and started actually paying attention to when and how I talk. Should I give myself 20 seconds of premium air or spend that time to chatter about the weather? Right now, my goal is to provide myself with premium air and talk only when absolutely necessary, which should also fix a lot of other problems, namely the fact I attract too much drama and unwanted attention.
Medical costs in the US are rapidly rising and, though treatment is still cheap in the EU, nothing beats prevention. It seems breathing through the nose prevents at least three health problems: pneumonia, crowded teeth and root exposure. I also discovered something about vagus, the wandering nerve, which controls the coughing and sneezing reflex, though I'll explain that in a separate article.