Frequently drinking soft drinks can be a cause of acidic destruction of your teeth
I am a grandmother of three lovely grandsons, and I have teeth that are worn down. I went to the dentist, and he says it is the reason I am experiencing pain when I bite on something. Are my teeth worn down because I am old? Yes. When we age, there is a natural breakdown of a lot of our body parts, including our bones, skin, joints and organs. Some people say even our brains will go! That goes for our teeth as well. After age 30, we begin to have a bit of wear on our teeth.
It is estimated we lose 1mm of length in our upper front teeth due to normal wear and tear for each decade of our life after 30! This means that when you are 40, you have lost 2mm. When you are 50, another 2mm has gone! As you learned in school, your teeth consists of an outer enamel layer, a living inner dentin layer and the roots. Healthy teeth will be covered by a layer of enamel one-eighth of an inch (3.18mm) thick. Okay, I have never measured my teeth, so I’m not sure how many millimetres have gone. Well, unfortunately, for a lot of us older people, the wearing down of our teeth occurs well before the age they are supposed to break down! For example, a 40-year-old might have 3mm gone instead of 2mm.
Enamel is the hardest substance in our entire body. Yes, harder even than bone! That’s why it is used to crunch food, including hard ones. If your enamel is worn through in parts, your dentin is exposed. Because the dentin is living, with nerve fibres, you will feel pain and cold in your teeth. Dentin wears down eight times faster than enamel. Sometimes, teeth is worn down slowly over many years. But other times, teeth is worn down quickly over a short period of time.
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