Why do we clench our teeth when doing something hard such as unscrewing a tight lidded jar?
In: Biology
Humans have a “messy” nervous system, where signals sent to one set of muscles tends to bleed over into other muscles. If you squeeze something in your right hand with 20 pounds of force, your left hand has an unconscious tendency try to clench with maybe 1 pound of force. This effect is most pronounced when you’re distracted, under stress, or in pain.
Anyway, exerting the muscles in both hands in order to unscrew that jar will tend to make other muscles, like your jaw, tense up as well. You might even stop breathing very briefly if you’re really putting some oomph into it (which is why women giving birth are constantly encouraged to breathe).
Clenching of the jaw is often associated with intense concentration. When you’re struggling to unscrew a jar. You’re focusing intensely on exerting maximal muscle power to the lid and may clench your teeth while doing that.
You clench your jaw to prevent from biting your tongue. When your body tenses with your mouth agape such as when carrying out a labour intensive task or exercise, you might lose purchase and bang your head, possibly biting off your tongue or injuring your jaws or teeth. Your body knows of this danger and evolved over a long time to prevent you from doing this.
Wow. All very interesting. Thank you
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