Researchers have found that being able to chew food well lowers anxiety, improves memory, and reduces pain, providing a compelling case for early treatment of poor oral health, removal of misaligned teeth, or simply chewing more gum.
Mice with crossbites showed significantly more noticeable and persistent anxiety-like behaviours, and “early removal of crossbites results in general improvement or partial recovery of these changes,” the authors wrote in their study published in December 2022.
This might be because vigorous chewing increases brain activity, according to Clare Collins, an Australian dietician and laureate professor in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Newcastle.
“The more strongly people could chew, the more blood flowed to their brains, leading to more oxygen and activity in regions of the brain linked to learning and memory,” Collins said….