Its my Teeth (Part I)

A tooth is an important component of our body. It undergoes many changes during our life. It stains, wears, erodes, chips, pains and finally lost. I would discuss the teeth proper, importance of teeth and changes it takes place during our life.

Number of teeth is equally divided into the upper and lower jaw. The section which we see in the oral cavity is crown. This crown is divided into enamel, dentin and pulp. Enamel is the rigid composition of the body and the portion that we see. Pulp is the innermost layer of teeth that has the blood supply and has a life. Below half of the tooth is root it is divided into cementum, dentin and pulp.

A tooth has various roles in the day to day life. Its function is

1. Chewing: Our food needs to be grinded before entering the stomach. It crushes the hard substances into pieces. Front teeth help in tearing the substances, and back teeth help in chewing the food.

2. Esthetics: Appearance of the face depends on the teeth. A beautiful smile needs teeth.

3. Emotion: We express our emotions in many ways. It can be anger, happiness, surprise, or sadness. Teeth play a huge role to express this. For example during the anger we try to clench the teeth to an extent that it can even break.

4. Forensics: It is a branch in science that deals with analysis of the crime and related areas. Area that deals with the study of teeth and other associated regions in solving the crime is called as forensic odontology. In this branch, we deal with the study of determining age, sexual category and even the region of world.

5. Speech: We need to pronounce certain words with the help of teeth especially the upper front teeth.

6. Other uses: We utilize teeth for several other things. It includes holding pin, tearing clothes and sometimes opening bottles.

We all get two sets of natural dentition during our life.

1. Primary: It begins from the second year of our life. It is twenty in number

2. Permanent: once the primary teeth set shed permanent enter the oral cavity approximately from the sixth year of our life and continuous till the last wisdom tooth up to the age of twenty-five. It is thirty-two in number.

But one more set of teeth I would like to include is artificial teeth set. Dentist calls it as dentures. When we replace all the teeth with artificial teeth then it is called as a complete denture. If a replacement is few or less than all then it is partial denture.
Teeth need proper care apart from regular brushing. Next section I would discuss regarding the alteration in the teeth during our life.