Role in everyday life

The permanent dentition has several crucial functions:

• Eating solids without constraint;
• Speech (the position of the teeth or the absence of certain teeth can influence our way of pronouncing certain sounds);
• Adequate functioning of the digestive system (properly chewed food).
• Self-confidence, pride, and self-esteem.

Enamel, a shield for your teeth

Enamel is the most solid and hardest tissue of the body. On the Mohs hardness scale, tooth enamel reaches 5, while glass and steel reach 5.5 and diamond, 10.

Since enamel is even resistant to the destructive effects of fire, it is not uncommon to use teeth as a source of DNA for forensic identification of human remains. Enamel is, however, very sensitive to acids and must be protected from them through the removal of dental plaque by tooth brushing.