Appreciating Your Mouth: Its Parts and Their Purposes

When you stop and think about it, your mouth is a pretty remarkable system! What other body part can perform so many essential and complex functions? Your mouth talks, drinks, breathes, smiles, kisses, and starts the digestion process by biting and chewing food. By appreciating the different parts of your mouth and their purposes, you can gain a strong appreciation of how it benefits you overall. Here are the main parts of your oral anatomy and how they play a role in helping your amazing mouth do its job.

Lips and Cheeks

Consisting of various muscles, your cheeks and lips do more than just keep food from escaping your mouth. They allow you to kiss, whistle, blow bubbles, speak clearly, and smile. Although these are soft tissues, they also vitally protect your teeth and gums as well as the rest of your body from germs and other outside materials that could harm you.

Salivary Glands

In addition to biting and chewing food, your mouth begins the digestion process through saliva. This watery substance created by salivary glands contains proteins and minerals that start to break down food, and it also neutralizes acids from bacteria and certain foods and beverages, shielding your teeth and gums from decay and inflammation.

Teeth and the Alveolar Bone

Your teeth have an obvious role: breaking down your food for easier digestion. However, you may not realize that teeth are made of enamel, the hardest material in your body. With your teeth, moved by the strongest muscle in your body, you can have a biting force of up to 200 pounds!

Reinforcing and supporting your teeth is the alveolar bone, which is stimulated by the tooth roots, drawing in nutrients and strength for your bite.

Gums

Gums are often overlooked when it comes to oral health, but they perform important functions. Primarily, they help hold your teeth in place. When they are infected, they recede, leaving teeth unstable. In fact, gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss in adults worldwide, and it affects about 50 percent of Americans over the age of 30.

Tongue

Although you appreciate your tongue most often when you eat or drink something sweet or savory, your tongue also assists with articulation in speech, swallowing, and efficient biting and chewing food. In other words, it does so much more than taste!

Now that you understand more about the parts of your mouth and how they work, you can more fully realize its impact on you overall. To show your appreciation for your mouth, you should take care of it by brushing and flossing your teeth every day, visiting your dentist regularly, and drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated. Doing these simple things can keep your mouth in excellent condition, which will help the rest of you as well.

About the Practice

Dr. Gregory Craybas and Dr. Donald Crumb at Creative Dental Concepts have decades of clinical experience and advanced training, but they also have a family-friendly chairside manner. As a result, they have patients of all ages who enjoy going to the dentist! If you are due for a checkup and cleaning, you can contact our dental office in Syracuse online or call us at 315-475-6641 to schedule an appointment.