I’ve never understood this. The reasoning I was always told for why we have baby teeth is because adult teeth are too big to fit in our small child heads. But they’re already there! How does adding even more teeth help solve that problem??
they aren't too big to fit in our small child heads, but they are too big to fit in our small child jaws
Our teeth are responsible for more than just helping us chew our food. They are also responsible for maintaining the shape and structure of our jaw. So then why do we need two sets of teeth for it? This is because our permanent set of 32 adult teeth are simply too big for a baby's jaw.
That's why we have the initial baby teeth to ensure proper structure of our jaw, speech development, and easy chewing of food during our childhood. Once our jaw is set and the skull has stopped growing, the baby teeth start to fall out and the adult teeth start coming in.
Another reason why we have two sets of teeth is that our teeth can't actually grow. Once they are fully developed, they stay the same size and can not grow bigger or longer like our nails or hair. That's why we need two sets of teeth to accommodate the change in our jaw sizes over time without hampering our ability to use our teeth.
at least according to this dentist: https://stratfordctdentist.com/p/BLOG-78926-2021.1.25-Why-Do-We-Have-Two-Sets-of-Teeth-p.asp?C=1657
I never thought about the teeth maintaining the shape of the jaw! In retrospect that makes a lot of sense, cause if your teeth are crooked enough they have to break and reform your jaw don’t they? Although this prompts another question
Another reason why we have two sets of teeth is that our teeth can’t actually grow. Once they are fully developed, they stay the same size and can not grow bigger or longer like our nails or hair
Why is this? What’s so fundamentally different about our teeth that they can’t grow and change over time, when other hard parts of our bodies like bones, nails, and hair can?
tooth enamel is the hardest part of the body, probably why it can't grow (I don't think enamel has any living cells in it), and under that they're made of dentin not keratin (or whatever bone is) which is less hard but still harder/denser than keratin and bone
that was from the top of my head but wikipedia confirms:
Enamel is the hardest substance in the human body and contains the highest percentage of minerals (at 96%), with water and organic material composing the rest. The primary mineral is hydroxyapatite, which is a crystalline calcium phosphate. Enamel is formed on the tooth while the tooth develops within the jaw bone before it erupts into the mouth. Once fully formed, enamel does not contain blood vessels or nerves, and is not made of cells. Remineralisation of teeth can repair damage to the tooth to a certain degree but damage beyond that cannot be repaired by the body.
Ah yes, and interestingly while bones are living tissue mostly made out of cells, teeth aren’t. They’re basically just small fancy rocks attached to our mouths. The fact that they aren’t made of cells is crazy to me
I’ve never understood this. The reasoning I was always told for why we have baby teeth is because adult teeth are too big to fit in our small child heads. But they’re already there! How does adding even more teeth help solve that problem??
they aren't too big to fit in our small child heads, but they are too big to fit in our small child jaws
at least according to this dentist: https://stratfordctdentist.com/p/BLOG-78926-2021.1.25-Why-Do-We-Have-Two-Sets-of-Teeth-p.asp?C=1657
I never thought about the teeth maintaining the shape of the jaw! In retrospect that makes a lot of sense, cause if your teeth are crooked enough they have to break and reform your jaw don’t they? Although this prompts another question
Why is this? What’s so fundamentally different about our teeth that they can’t grow and change over time, when other hard parts of our bodies like bones, nails, and hair can?
tooth enamel is the hardest part of the body, probably why it can't grow (I don't think enamel has any living cells in it), and under that they're made of dentin not keratin (or whatever bone is) which is less hard but still harder/denser than keratin and bone
that was from the top of my head but wikipedia confirms:
Ah yes, and interestingly while bones are living tissue mostly made out of cells, teeth aren’t. They’re basically just small fancy rocks attached to our mouths. The fact that they aren’t made of cells is crazy to me
small fancy rocks with squishy insides
Small fancy rocks that will bankrupt you if anything goes wrong with them.