Why do teeth need nerves?
In: Other
To tell us when something’s wrong and get it fixed. If you had a cracked or rotting tooth and no nerves to tell, it would lead to infection and kill you. Though it may hurt, the pain lets you know you have something you need to take care of.
In addition to warning us about issues, it’s also helpful to know when we’re eating something unexpected. When you’re biting down into something soft and feel something hard that’s unexpected, you’re going to spit it out.
Pain nerves (nociceptors) tell us when damage to our tissues is occurring so we can stop it. When a tooth is cracked/broken or too much pressure is put on it, the nerves in your teeth tell us so we can get it fixed or correct it. If we had no nerves in our teeth, we’d never know when we have a cavity, cracked tooth, etc.
for eating i guess they dont since people have dentures etc. but for disease / cavity detection, toothaches tell you something is wrong with the teeth. for most of human history we didnt have dentists
To make you curl up in a fetal position and weep like a baby when shit hits the fan. Dem suckers hurt
Teeth have nerves ?! Tf ?!
As someone who’s teeth nerves are currently not at 100%, it’s incredibly weird to bite and not have sensory feedback (although part of this is my jaw as a whole, not just teeth). Specifically, feeling when your teeth hit each other as you bite, useful to know when to stop biting, and feeling whether the thing you bite is hard or soft helps you know what it is and how hard to bite/chew
From an evolutionary standpoint, for the animal to know the limits of its bite strength, as it could otherwise damage or break the teeth without knowing it.
If we couldn’t feel our teeth, we would be less careful with them. we could bite on all sorts of things and break them away in no time – that means no eating – that means death – and no procreation.
So evolution has ensured that we have feeling in the things that need the most protection to ensure survival (think of other sensitive areas).
Teeth are also like little individual organs, they do a lot of functions and nerves form part of that biological package.
It stops us from chewing on rocks and other activities that damage the teeth and it lets us better regulate the pressure of our bite.
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