Teeth, teeth, teeth oh My!!!

 Chomping and Chewing  

Can you count your teeth? By the age of 21 you'll probably have 32 teeth!! Did you know you first set of teeth is called deciduous teeth or baby teeth and your second set is called permanent teeth?  A natural cement holds your teeth in palace with your gums. Adults have 4 kinds of teeth, each one designed for a special job. The incisor tooth is shaped like a small chisel. It cuts and slices.  The canines and premolars are pointed. They are designed to grip and tear food.  The molars are designed to crush and grind. On each side of the jaw there are permanent teeth such as two incisors, one cuspid, two bicuspids, and three molars.

The Hardest Substance   

The part of your teeth that you can see is called the crown.  The part that’s under your teeth is called the gums. You teeth are covered in enamel, the hardest substance in your body. Also, under the enamel, there is a substance called dentine (not the toothpaste). This is slightly softer.   Dentine absorbs the impact of chewing. Inside dentine, there’s a pulp chamber. The chamber contains blood vessels that that feed the tooth and nerves. 

The canal that stretches down the root of the tooth that you chew with is called the root canal.      Nerves and blood vessels are located at the root canal.   Those nerves tell us if we have a cavity or toothache or something like that.  Enamel is the hardest substance in the body, yet acid-producing bacteria in the mouth can dissolve it.