Human Teeth

To have beautiful smile, one should have beautiful set of teeth and that can be achieved if you know the importance of your teeth. The teeth help us to:-

• Chew our food properly which is essential for body growth and health.
• Speak properly – Few alphabets can not be spoken properly if we have crooked teeth or missing teeth e.g. “T” sounds as “D” if teeth are inclined towards inside.
• Look beautiful – Teeth give shape to our face. If one looses few teeth, the face starts looking sunken.
• Look confident – If one has beautiful set of teeth then one is confident and smiles often.  

THE TWO SETS OF TEETH 

In one lifetime we have two set of teeth i.e. one set of milk teeth and one set of permanent teeth. Milk teeth are 20 in number and permanent teeth are 32 in number. Milk teeth start erupting from the age of six months and by the age of 2.5 years to 3 years all milk teeth are in the mouth. Permanent teeth start erupting at the age of 6 years till the age of 13 years. Only the last molars come at the age of 18 to 25 years.

The tooth has two parts. One part is visible outside in the mouth and is called crown. The other part which is embedded in the bone is called root. The outmost layer of the crown is called enamel which is the hardest part of the body. Then comes the dentin in which we can feel hot and cold sensation and afterwards comes the pulp which has the blood and nerve supply of the tooth.

TYPES OF TEETH

The different teeth are given different names and they have different work to do.

• Incisor – Front 4 upper and lower teeth are called incisors. These teeth help in incising the food.
• Canine - Corner tooth, which is sharp and helps to shear the food is called canine. There are 2 in the upper arch and 2 in the lower arch.
• Premolars -  These are also called bicuspids or small molar. They come after canine. They are 4 in upper arch and 4 in lower arch.
• Molars -  These help in mastication of food. They are 6 in upper arch and 6 in lower arch. The last molars are also called as wisdom teeth.