Your Tooth Enamel Is Super Cool Stuff

| March 28, 2014

tooth-enamel

WHAT IS AS FRAGIILE AS GLASS and at the same time, the hardest substance in your body? Your tooth enamel! Each time you bite down it handles the equivalent of 160 pounds of pressure, all the time. Think about how often you bite down during your lifetime. It’s crazy!

 

Enamel is the hard outer layer of your teeth, built to safeguard the softer dentine layer, and your delicate pulp.

 toothgraphic

 

 

It’s Amazing How Such A Brittle Substance Handles The Pressure

 

It’s an engineering miracle. Enamel is made up of a dense forest of long rods. These rods start crisscrossing each other as they go deeper into the tooth, diffusing the pressure. It’s like sprawling your body out flat to crawl over an ice-covered pond, spreading the pressure over a wider area. 

 

 

 

Mother Nature’s Pattern For Strength

 

This same concept actually inspired a group of scientists to create glass that is 200 times stronger than normal! Read about it in the article, How to Toughen Glass by Cracking It: A Lesson From Teeth and Shells.

 

Enamel Is Built To Deal With Pressure… But Not Erosion

 

As sturdy as your enamel is, it doesn’t deal as well with acid and bacteria. It needs our help for that.

 

4 ways your enamel CAN get worn down:

    1. Acidic breakdown (usually from acidic drinks like soda, fruit juices, and sports drinks).
    2. Abrasion from rough brushing and tooth-whitening toothpastes.
    3. Bad habits like grinding your teeth.
    4. High sugar-and-starch diets, which create acid byproducts.

      Your Enamel Is Finite So Treat It Well

       

      As amazing as your enamel is, it’s one of the only parts of your body unable to regenerate itself because it’s one of the only parts of your body not comprised of living cells. So protect your enamel by brushing regularly, flossing, and keeping your regularly scheduled checkups.

       

      Thanks for the trust you place in our practice. We appreciate having you as our valued patient!

Looking for more ways to keep your mouth healthy?  Check out these related blog posts.

 

Founded in 1978, Grandview Dental Care is a leading Columbus Ohio dentist offering a wide range of general and cosmetic dental services in the Columbus area including: Invisalign, dental implants, IV sedation dentistry, and veneers Grandview Dental Care is conveniently located at 1220 Grandview Avenue, Columbus, Ohio, 43212 in Grandview Heights, near Marble Cliff, Upper Arlington, The Ohio State University campus, and downtown Columbus.  You can give us a call at 614-468-8654.

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