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| Mouth and Teeth |
Our mouth is an inlet in our body which allows us to eat, drink and breathe. The mouth has a hard palate at the top and the tongue at the bottom, surrounded by the teeth, and leading into the throat at the back. The tongue is a flexible muscle which serves the purpose of identifying taste, moving food around in the mouth while we are chewing it, and subsequently in moving it towards the throat.
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The tongue is covered with tiny clusters containing taste buds. The front of the tongue identifies sweet and salty taste, the sides identify sour and the rear identifies bitter taste. On the back of the mouth are located salivary glands which produce ‘saliva’ a watery liquid which helps us in swallowing food.
To break food down into smaller particles so that we can digest it, we use our teeth. These are located both on the upper and the lower side of our jaws. The jaws are connected to the skull and the movement of the lower jaw is made possible with the help of a number of powerful muscles located in the cheeks and at the rear of the jaw. The number of teeth in our jaw varies with age. A child has a first set of about 20 teeth called ‘Milk teeth’ which tend to fall off as he or she grows.
As these teeth fall off, they are replaced by a set of 32 new which grow into place gradually over the years. All teeth have a hard outer surface and an innermost core, called the root, made up of blood vessels and nerves and are held together by the gums.
Teeth are of two types, i.e., ‘Incisors’ and ‘Molars’. Incisors are located in the front, they are thin, sharp tipped and serve the purpose of biting into, or cutting into food, they generally have only one root which is embedded in the jaw bone. Once the food has been cut and a morsel taken into the mouth, the job of chewing it or breaking it down is done by the molars. The molars are wide and flat topped teeth located at the rear of the mouth and firmly embedded in the jawbone.
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Medical