Phonics and Your Teeth

Phonics is one of those things you vaguely remember as a child in early elementary school. There were these workbooks that you’d have to practice your sounds in. And for the most part, those things really worked in getting children to speak correctly and learn to read. It was kind of a two birds with one stone thing for the school.

At times, I think those things should’ve extended far beyond elementary school. And that’s not because I think people just can’t speak without it. I just think that the focus of speaking and reading drops off quite a bit by the time kids hit middle school in America. It gets to the point that they’re expected to write papers in high school yet haven’t learn formal grammar and the likes for over 5 years. Instead, we push reading (which is really a misnomer, for the most part, considering it’s more about the comprehension of literature and devices in literature rather than actual reading, pronunciation, and grammar).

A big part of phonics, or learning to pronounce things, is knowing where the tongue should be in the mouth when a sound is uttered. So, that also means that the teeth are extremely important in pronunciation. Without your teeth, your tongue would be a free moving muscle without any support. You wouldn’t be able to make a lot of sounds in English without serious trouble, and for the most part, you would be extremely hard to understand.

So, it’s important to take care of your oral and dental health. A lot of people neglect these things because it seems like it won’t happen until the end of your life anyway. Well, this isn’t always the case. Oftentimes, it’s not uncommon to hear of people losing their front teeth in an accident or even having some of their molars rot because of neglect. These things, ultimately, will affect your speech more than you ever thought.

While most people preach the benefits of healthy teeth long into your life, they often forget to include how important teeth are to speech. Of course it’s hard to eat without teeth. We all realize that. It’s just that speech should be included in those warnings, too.

So, the next time you “forget” to brush your teeth, think a few decades down the road instead. Think about how much you like to blabber on about things. Think about how much you enjoy eating good food uninterrupted. If anything, those two aspects about life should make you revisit the bathroom sink to get a nice, quality brush in.