Teeth

The teeth are hard and bright parts in the mouth of humans and many animals, together they form the dentition. In humans, there is nothing harder in the body than the teeth. They are mainly there to grind food.

A human being has three different types of teeth: the flat incisors at the front, the pointed canines to the right and left of them, and the broad molars at the back. When necessary, we use the front teeth to break up the food and bite off a piece. The back teeth then grind it really small. Only then can we swallow our food, even if it is sometimes a bit bigger and harder at first.

People get teeth twice in their lifetime. In very young children, twenty milk teeth fill the mouth. It can take a few years before they are all there. From the age of about five, one after the other falls out again. Behind the milk teeth that have fallen out, the permanent teeth are already waiting and slipping in.

There are 32 of them, and they all have much longer roots than the milk teeth. After all, they are supposed to last a lifetime. When a permanent tooth falls out, a gap is created. The dentist can fit an artificial tooth into the gap. But it will never be as strong and beautiful as the natural tooth.