Why do We Brush Our Teeth?

We brush our teeth twice a day, but we should really understand why we do it!

Have your teeth ever felt just yuck? Like at the end of the day? I really like brushing my teeth, because it gets rid of that icky feeling. And it feels good! Because it is good!

We brush our teeth to keep them clean and healthy, so they can keep helping us our whole lives! After all, how would you crunch up a cracker, or bite into an apple, without teeth, you’d have very few choices of foods that you could eat. So you’ve got to care of them! Now, you can’t tell just by looking at them, but your teeth are actually made of up different layers.

The part that on the outside is super hard shell called enamel, which is mostly made of minerals. Enamel is the strongest stuff in your whole body, even stronger than bone! But unlike your bones, a tooth can’t heal itself if it’s broken. Your teeth aren’t hard enamel all the way through. Just below that tough outer layer, there’s another layer called dentin that’s not as hard and below that, there’s the inner layer of the tooth, called the pulp, which has blood vessels and nerves inside it, and this part of your tooth is super sensitive. So in order to protect the delicate pulp inside of your teeth, you have take really good care of the outside.

The best way to do that, is to clean them up after you eat. Because food can damage even those tough outer layers of your teeth. How? Well, you might think that you ate every last bite of those crackers that you had as a snack, but the truth is , some very small pieces of food are still hanging around in your teeth. That’s because your teeth aren’t all shiny smooth. They have lots of bumps and ridges that help you grind down your food. There are lots of small spaces between them too. These are places where it’s easy for food to get stuck and hang out all day. These are places where it’s easy for food to get stuck and hang out all day. Which is kind of gross! But you know what’s even more gross?

You’re not the only one enjoying those leftovers. There are lots of tiny little things that call your mouth home. These are called bacteria. They’re way too small to see, but they’re definitely in there. There are a lot of them! In just your mouth alone, there are more bacteria than there are people on earth.

Some kinds of bacteria are really good to have! Others just kind of hang around, and are neither good nor bad. Then there are some who are pretty bad house guests, and you don’t want them staying in your mouth for to long. One type of bacteria loves to eat the same stuff that you do, especially sugars and starches that means things like cookies, chips, bread, candy, and cereal. These bacteria hang around on your teeth and in your mouth, basically eating your leftovers! Once they’re done with those tiny bits of food, they release acid, which can really hurt your teeth! This acid can cause holes, call cavities, to form in the enamel of your teeth. The cavities can really hurt!

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But the good news is that when you brush your teeth, you clean away the food that those bacteria love so much, and you sweep away some of the bacteria themselves. With them goes that icky, gross feeling on your teeth. So we brush our teeth before we go to bed, to get rid of all those tiny bits of food.

Week Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/YD20qsCWkoc?feature=share