the inwils interval 1.14 – Chomp those teeth!
Hello everyone and welcome to the inwils interval, a short, monthly podcast that is perfect for you to listen to while taking a quick break with or without a beverage and biscuits. In this months interval, I want to talk about my teeth and what I have been wrong with cleaning them for 54 years!
Before we start here’s a starter question for you to think about – which animal has the most number of teeth? Have a think about it and I’ll tell you later in the podcast you might not be aware of this but I have a phobia of the dentist. It is not that they are nasty people or that I’m afraid of the pain. It is just that I am completely out of control and they are putting electronic gadgets into my mouth. Okay, so I guess the pain does worry me a bit, but it is more the whole experience. The pandemic meant that my checkups were cancelled which pleased me. But yesterday I got the dreaded phone call that they were booking people in for their checkups! It is not until January but I have the added complication that my usual dentist has left and I have to start the initiation of a new dental practice coach! He has no idea what is about to enter his room and to be reclined on his moveable chair.
I’ve never had a good relationship with my teeth. According to medical sites, you should have 32 teeth being comprised of 28 ‘normal’ teeth and 4 wisdom teeth! You have four incisors at the front of your mouth, four canine teeth, then 8 premolars and then 12 molars! Despite the amount of talking I do, I actually have a very small mouth. I only have 24 teeth, including four wisdom teeth and even then there is not really enough room for them and they are all crooked and overlapping! As I was growing up, the dentist removed teeth to allow my wisdom teeth to come through. This was when you didn’t have injections to numb your mouth, gas was used to put you to sleep. Truly an awful experience!
One of the issues with overlapping teeth is that they are really difficult to clean and keep clean! I’m sure in the past we just had a toothbrush and toothpaste but you can find more info about the tips and tricks that are suggested by the experts. Now we have toothbrushes, smaller in between teeth brushes – that come in a variety of sizes and floss – both circular and flat versions and finally the mouthwash! In the past cleaning, your teeth would only take minutes. Now you have to extend the amount of time from minutes to hours! well maybe that is an exaggeration but you know what I mean.
Having a broken tooth actually initiated my facial neuralgia, so I try to keep my teeth super clean. Because of this I sort advice from the NHS website and discovered some unbelievable things – that actually meant that I was cleaning them wrong for 54 years!
So after cleaning my teeth I rinse my mouth out to get rid of all the toothpaste! Apparently, you are not meant to do this at all since you are washing all the fluoride that is on your teeth! You should not rinse at all, just spit and wipe – the latter so you don’t end up with white toothpaste all over your face!
Also, you should clean in between your teeth at this point as well so you are pushing the fluoride in between your teeth and so helping them to keep clean. The same when you are flossing!
This was a real deal changer for me. Now it makes perfect sense but I have spent many years brushing then rinsing! And what about the mouth wash, I hear you saying or thinking. Well, they suggest that this should be done at a different time of the day when you are not brushing. For example, I have started to rinse with the mouth wash after my evening meal. You can probably guess, if you brush and then rinse and then rinse again with mouthwash there is going to be nothing left protecting your teeth!
14.6With all this new information accepted I have started to wash my teeth in a completely different way. Not sure if this has been more efficient though. I guess I will just have to wait until my next dental appointment with the Dean Street Dental clinic to find out🙂 You can also see this here if you need the best dental services.
Before leaving teeth behind, I wanted to share with you some interesting facts about teeth from the animal kingdom. Yes, this podcast is not just entertainment, it’s an education!
Sharks have teeth that are arranged in multiple rows. These gradually move forward and then they lose them as they reach the edge of their mouths. Sharks are therefore constantly losing their teeth!
Giraffes have the same number of teeth as humans although they are positioned further back in their mouths meaning that they use their lips and very long tongue to get the food to them.
And would you believe that the longest canines in the animal kingdom do not belong to any wolf or cat but to the hippopotamus? Their canines are 3 feet about a metre long! And their incisors can actually bite through a small boat!
Before I let you get back to whatever you were enjoying before you started to listen to this episode – have you thought of an answer to the question -which animal has the most number of teeth. Well, you might have gone for a blue whale, but they actually don’t have teeth at all, just bristle-like filters! The correct answer to the animal with the most teeth is – drum roll – a snail! yep, the common garden snail has 14,000 teeth while others can have up to 20,000! Snail’s teeth are not completely the same as ours. Their teeth are actually arranged in rows on their tongue! And aquatic snails called the limpet, have teeth made with the strongest biological material on Earth – it is even stronger than titanium!
And with that fact still resounding around your head, I’m going to finish the episode and go and clean my teeth.
I hope you have enjoyed this inwils interval. If you have and would like to hear more then please do subscribe and come back next month. My aim is to continue the podcast by covering its overheads of 20 pounds a month via donations. So please do check out my Ko-Fi page if you would like to donate and support the podcast. Until next time, have fun, stay positive and don’t forget, no rinsing, just spit and wipe!
