October 27, 2011

10 Things You Didn't Know About Teeth

  1. Watch what you bite: Enamel, the sturdiest substance in the body, is harder than a copper bullet but slightly less hard than a stainless-steel fork.
  2. Enamel also develops tiny cracks that diffuse the stress of chewing and help prevent breaks. Aerospace engineers are studying this feature with an eye toward creating stronger spacecraft.
  3. Yet your teeth cannot always stand up to your mouth's native population of bacteria, which produce acids that leach calcium and phosphate from the enamel - the process that leads to cavities.
  4. Nothing personal: Those acids are an accidental by-product created when the bacteria digest sugars in the food you've eaten. (Before the invention of refined sugar, cavities were rare.)
  5. Fluoride counters tooth decay by preventing the loss of minerals from enamel and promoting reabsorption of calcium and phosphate from saliva into the enamel.
  6. In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first community in the world to put fluoride into its water system. Today, two-thirds of U.S. residents get fluoridated water.
  7. The next stage in fighting tooth decay? Jeffrey Hillman, professor emeritus of oral biology at the University of Florida, has begun human trials of a genetically engineered version of the oral bacterium Streptococcus mutans, which he modified to produce less acid.
  8. This strain also creates an antibiotic that kills other S. mutans strains, allowing it to take over inside the mouth.
  9. A study by researchers at Yale and New York University has confirmed a bit of folk wisdom: The more children a woman has, the more likely she is to have missing teeth.
  10. Possible explanation: Pregnant women tent to develop gingivitis (inflammation of the gums) as hormonal shifts make the tissues more sensitive to irritation.
*Source: Discover Magazine

1 comment:

  1. Some of us are somehow aware of these things but we tend to disregard. But then again these are important things we need to know about our teeth because our teeth would somehow tell us how health we are. For more information visit site: www.wilsonbraces.com/for-adults

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