Take Care of Your Teeth

Do you take your teeth for granted? Are you pretty sure that beautiful smile will always be there, no matter what? Well, think again.

Teeth are a very important part of your health. A baby first begins to get teeth at about 6 or 7 months of age. By three years of age, children usually have all twenty of their “baby teeth.” Around age five or six, the first of those baby teeth is pushed out by the permanent teeth that are already formed in the gums and slowly grow in once the baby teeth have been tucked under the pillow, awaiting the tooth fairy.

By the early teen years, most people have all of their 28 permanent teeth, but there are still four more to come. “Wisdom teeth” usually appear at the very back of the mouth around twenty years of age. Often the mouth is too small to accommodate these teeth, in which case a dentist, to prevent crowding of the other teeth, might extract them.

Teeth and jaws are very strong. Have you ever seen a circus performer hang by his teeth? That’s because the jaws muscles are so strong. Teeth have a hard enamel layer on the outside, which covers the next layer, also hard, called dentin. The dentin wraps around the pulp where all of the nerves reside. These nerves are what make you get “brain freeze” when you eat ice cream. Teeth are held to the jawbone by a gluey substance called cementum. The root of the tooth is inside of your gums, the fleshy, pink part.

It is very important to brush one’s teeth regularly and thoroughly to remove the bacteria that grows inside of the mouth and feeds on food particles and sugar. If the bacteria are allowed to grow indefinitely, the bacteria will destroy the bone around the teeth and the teeth will eventually fall out.

Dentures or “false teeth” are then constructed and fitted to the individual mouth, but they will never have the strength of natural teeth. So, be sure to take good care of your teeth. Don’t use them as tools to open or break things. Even thread can damage teeth and later on in life, you teeth will begin to crack and chip. That’s when the dentist loves to see you coming.