Human Body Lessons

Health and Wellness

1. The Digestive System
2. Muscles Move!
3. The Heart and Circulatory System
4. Skeleton Jones and Bones
5. The Nervous System
6. Ears to Hear
7. The Respiratory System
8. Rippers, Nippers, and Grinders

The Digestive System: THE DISSAPPEARING APPLE

The food we eat travels through the alimentary canal, a path that is about 30 feet long from mouth to rectum and includes 2 large glands the liver and the pancreas.

We are food processors! We break down our food by chopping, mashing and mixing it to a nice soup that our body can absorb. Food has minerals like calcium for healthy teeth and bones. The minerals that we need come from non-livings things. Iron is a mineral required by your blood to carry the oxygen you breathe to feed every living cell in your body. Cells must have oxygen to stay alive. The iron that we get from our food originally comes from rock. The core of the earth is iron and many things are made from iron like gates and tools. Zinc and magnesium are other minerals we need.

Plants and animals that we eat contain carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins like vitamin A to strengthen our eyes, vitamin C to help us heal, and B vitamins to feed our brains! Growing and doing things requires energy and energy comes from fuel! Food, water and oxygen are our fuel. The sun is the fuel for plants to grow and stay alive. In a lifetime we may eat the weight of 6 elephants. Food keeps us strong, builds cells, and allows us to grow and work and play. It helps fix our body if we are hurt or sick and it controls the systems of our body.

What happens to an apple when we eat it? Smelling and seeing food starts the process of producing saliva. The mouth releases 3 cups of saliva a day. In the mouth our teeth and tongue work together to chew food and mix it with saliva. The epiglottis trapdoor to our lungs closes and the tongue pushes the food down into the esophagus (a narrow tube 10 inches long.) It goes into the stomach where it is mashed and mixed with gastric juices and turned into a thick soup. It is in the stomach 2 to 4 hours churning. The stomach has 3 layers of muscles to help churn our food. Mucus protects the stomach from digestive acids. The food is moved into the small intestines (about 22 feet long and the longest part of the canal) where nutrition from the soup is taken into the blood stream by the tiniest blood vessels called capillaries. Then it is taken to a major checkpoint the liver to filter out any harmful substances or wastes. The nutrients are then sent to all parts of our body.

The pancreas makes juices that help the body digest fats and proteins. A juice from the liver called bile helps to absorb fats into the blood stream. The gall bladder is the storage place for the bile. Food not used goes on to the large intestines (about 5 feet long) where the rest of the liquid is absorbed. The large intestine has a tiny tube with a closed end called the appendix that doesn’t do anything. Wastes from our food travels through the colon where the rest of the water is absorbed. The solid waste accumulates in the rectum and is eliminated through the round sphincter muscle called the anus (a circular muscle is a sphincter). A meal takes from 15 hours to 2 days to go through the alimentary canal.

The body can only use one kind of sugar for energy and that is glucose. Plants make there own glucose. If there are bacteria in the food or the stomach is irritated by a germ, the stomach objects and pushes the food out and you stomach ache and you may vomit up the food.

The pancreas produces digestive juices for the small intestines and is like a giant salivary gland. It produces the hormone insulin (glucose) a type of sugar that is fuel for cells, esp. those in the brain. The liver is the largest internal organ and it makes poisons in our food less harmful and produces the green fluid called bile stored in the gall bladder. Kidneys filter and clean the fluid from the blood and sends liquid waste to our bladder and it is eliminated from the body in urination.

To keep the body in good health we must breathe clean air, keep our bodies clean, get enough rest, exercise, and eat foods that have the nutrients our bodies need. The protein we need comes from meat, fish, eggs, beans, and whole grains. Our body rearranges the protein into amino acids that our bodies use for building new cells and tissues. The carbohydrates that we need come from vegetables, fruit, bread, and cereal and the body makes glucose for energy that is stored in muscles and the liver. The fats we eat come from milk, eggs, meat, and oils. They cushion around organs and store energy in the liver and under the skin.

I use the digestive system apron with students and may have them eat an apple or pretend to eat an apple. The apron is available through one of the suppliers listed on the resource page. I may discuss animals that have 2 stomachs or a crop to store food. We may discuss herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores and those that have beaks and the differences in teeth depending on their diet. This is a good time to follow up on nutrition and the food pyramid and for very young children I have samples of food for them to identify and learn how it is good for the body.

1. MUSCLES MOVE! Muscle work requires energy! Muscles need oxygen to work. If they don't get enough oxygen when working, they will produce muscle fatigue from lactic acid and will ache or stop working completely. The energy comes from oxygen and glucose from the carbohydrates you eat. To release energy the glucose must combine with oxygen from red blood cells. Muscles cramp when there is not enough oxygen and lactic acid builds up. Inside muscles ATP is like a battery that stores energy. Muscles work if they have a constant supply of ATP provided by respiration. Aerobic = food + oxygen = ATP. If you exercise intensely and the heart can't keep up then the anaerobic system takes over and ATP is produced without oxygen and also produces the poison lactic acid. You need protein for healthy muscles. Aerobic exercise increases oxygen in the blood and strengthens the heart. The more you exercise, the more food and oxygen you need. The more you use muscles, the stronger they grow. Without exercise, healthy nourishment and enough oxygen muscles become smaller and weaker. To strengthen muscles you must work against a stronger resistance than used to and increase as muscle training continues. Exercise doesn't increase the number of muscle cells but increases the size of the existing cells. To develop bigger muscles the individual muscle filaments grow in thickness 24-48 hours later.

Muscles have the only kind of tissue that can contract getting shorter and thicker. Put your thumbs in your ears and you can hear the rumbling sound of your muscles contracting! We have 656 muscles in our body. More than 200 operate when we take a step. They are controlled by the central nervous system through nerve impulses from our brain. If your nervous system weren't so efficient, you might be socking yourself in the face instead of scratching your nose!

Muscles are voluntary as skeletal muscles or involuntary as organs. Muscles are mostly protein - meat on the bones - flesh. When we eat meat we are eating muscle tissue. There are red and white muscle cells mixed together. Red cells work longer but white cells are stronger. This is why there is white meat and red meat.

Muscles are attached to our bones by tough inelastic tendons. We can see tendons on the back of the hand. You can feel one of the biggest tendons, the achilles at the back of your foot at the heal. Bones are attached to bones by ligaments and joints are oiled by synovial fluid. Cartilage acts as a shock absorber. It is cartilage that grows into bone.

3 kinds of muscle:

1. Striped Skeletal Muscles - Are voluntary muscles. We can control these muscles at will. Most are attached to bone and move us. The muscles can't push but work in pairs. One relaxes and the other contracts. one muscle gets long and the other contracts to shorten. Our reflex action is involuntary and comes from the spinal chord.

2. Smooth Muscles are responsible for the movements inside of us - our guts and organs. We cannot control the digestive or circulatory system, nor the diaphragm, muscle of the iris in the eye, or the muscle of each hair when we get goose bumps. When we are hungry our stomach muscle contracts and if there is air in the stomach it growls for food!

3. Cardiac Muscle makes up our heart and is our strongest involuntary muscle. We cannot control it and it never stops working till we die. The heart is a pump that feeds oxygen and nutrition to our body.

Muscles Matter - The Benefits of Muscles:

1. Move parts of our body allowing many kinds of activity such as swimming or painting

2. The heart pumps blood through our body to feed it oxygen and nutrition to keep us alive and healthy

3. Protect inside organs

4. Stabalizes the spine of the skeletal system.

5. Shape us - our face and whole body

6. Allow us to breathe, eat, digest food, talk, sing, whistle, see,

7. Allow us to manipulate things

8. Keep us warm with a shiver

The tongue is your most flexible and dangerous muscle. Our smallest muscle is in the ear. The largest in in our rear - the gluteous maximus of our derriere. Our strongest is the jaw masseter muscle we use to bite, chew and talk. The most active muscles are the eye muscles. Takes more muscles and energy to frown than to smile!

In multiple schlerosis a layer of fat is absent from muscles and they can't transmit nerve messages properly. Muscular dystrophy is when muscles waste away. Muscles can become paralized from brain damage. A strained muscle is one that has been stretched too much.

Be a body scientist and test your reaction time catching a ruler, check your pulse, listen to your heart, listen to your muscles contract, check knee reflex, lung capacity, nail growth, and get outside and exercise!

CONTENT:The Heart and Circulatory System

Ask children if parts of their body are alive. Are your teeth alive, bones, blood, eyes, skin, muscles etc.? You will be surprised at what they respond. All of the human body is alive (except hair& nails), & every single cell needs oxygen to live.

The heart is made of muscle and it is a little pump about the size of your fist. Muscles move things. The heart pumps blood through our body. It has 4 chambers and is nestled in the lungs a little more to your left side. The left lung has only 2 lobes and has more room. The right lung has 3 lobes. The valves inside that keep the blood from flowing backwards make the beating noise when they open and close. Blood travels through vessels that are like tubes from the heart to the lungs to get oxygen then back to the heart and the blood full of oxygen is then pumped to the cells in our body. Veins are the wessels we can see and they carry the dirty blood back to the heaart to get oxygen. Our blood feeds us. The heart pumps blood to every living cell of your body. Blood carries nutrition from the food you eat to your cells too. When you exercise your body needs more oxygen and pumps faster and when you are at rest it pumps more slowly.

Blood is made in your bones. This is what makes bone tissue unique. Bone is the only tissue that makes another tissue - our blood. There are red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets in our blood. Red blood cells carry oxygen. Every cell in our body has to have oxygen to stay alive. White blood cells fight germs by gobbling them up and the platelets clot our blood if we are hurt so we don't bleed to death. Red blood cells must have iron to carry oxygen. If a person were in a fire, the smoke could kill them because they couldn't breath and their body couldn't get oxygen. That's why firefighters wear masks. Smoke is harmful to the lungs.

Materials: Heart Model, blood cell chart, stethoscopes, model of human skeleton, and bones showing porous center that contained marrow.

Activities: Examine heart model noting the 4 chambers. Have kids put hands together and squeeze like a pump. Children put hands on each lung and take a deep breath and pretend to grab oxygen from the air. Children model the heartbeat when running and when resting. Children find some veins in their arms. Children listen to their heart with the stethoscope.

Content: Skeleton Jones and Bones Do you have bones inside of you? Show children the model of the human skeleton and tell them all the bones in the body are called the skeleton. Do animals have bones? Trees? Rocks? Show models of different animals and ask them which ones have bones. Animals that do not have bones are invertebrates. Animals with bones are vertebrates. Show children skulls of different farm animals and let them guess the animal. How do bones help us: They give us our shape, protect parts of our body, help us move, blood is made inside bones, bones hold our teeth, they give us clues to the past'The places where bones meet are called joints. Point out the following joints: Saddle joint (thumb), hinge (knee or elbow) ball and socket joints(hip and shoulder) Children examine a model of the human skeleton. Give a model of an animal to each child and let them tell if they area vertebrate or invertebrate. Let children exercise some the 3 kinds of joints. Children can choose a bone from the bone box, examine it, and help put the skeleton together.

MATERIALS: Model of the human skeleton. Examples of animals that do and do not have bones. The small plastic models of animals are great for this. Examples of bones forming joints.

ACTIVITIES: Children examine model of the human skeleton. Let children exercise some the 3 kinds of joints. Children can choose a bone from the bone box and help put the skeleton together. Teach the song about skeleton Jones.

Content: The Nervous System

Do we have electricity inside of us? Yes, we do. Ripples of electricity take messages to our brain. Electricity travels to the brain along cells called neurons and the brain gets the message and tells us what to do.

Where is our brain? Our brain is inside our head and is protected by the bones of our skull. The long chord that comes from our brain is our spinal chord and it is inside the vertebrae of our back. These bones protect the spinal chord. Nerve cells carry electrical signals to and from the spinal chord. All five of our senses are connected to our brain. The brain tells us to move or if we are touching something. The fastest brain message travels 360 mph!

The brain, spinal chord and nerves (31 pair of spinal nerves) make up our nervous system and control the actions and sensations of the whole body. The largest cells in our body are nerve cells. In the brain they are very small, but they can be as long as 4 feet in our legs. Point out the parts of the nervous system on the chart. The spinal nerves have 2 jobs; taking messages to the brain and reflexes.

Draw a picture of a neuron. There are 3 kinds of neurons: motor, sensory, and connector. We have 100 billion neurons in our body. The brain controls the whole body and tries to keep it stable (homeostasis).

What gives the brain energy? OXYGEN from the air we breathe gives the brain energy. If the brain goes for 5 minutes without oxygen then it begins to die. If we learn something new, the brain grows and makes new connections!

When we are asleep the brain keeps our heart beating and our lungs breathing. We have a built in sleep-wake clock. Lack of sleep can hurt us because this is when the brain stores up chemicals it will need for the next day. In our lifetime we will sleep almost 30 years! Our brain uses a lot of energy (20%) and consumes a lot of oxygen (1/4th of the body’s oxygen)

People who study the brain are called Neurologists. Neurologists believe that the brain is surrounded by liquid crystals. Show the liquid crystals and how they respond to the heat of your hand.

Not only does the brain control the whole body, but also your emotions, pain, thoughts, and memory. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body.

Examine the model of the brain and point out the two cerebral hemispheres and the brain stem that attaches to the spinal chord. The brain works using chemicals and electricity and is sensitive to the food we eat. Some things can hurt our brain like poisons from certain plants or animal bites, pollution in the air and exposure to certain chemicals and metals can cause nutritional imbalances, allergies, brain fog, and chronic fatigue.

We are what we eat! It starts with the soil that determines the nutrients in the plants we eat. Without copper, plant leaves turn yellow. If we get too little copper, we can develop brain fog, thyroid and hormone problems. If we don’t get enough calcium and magnesium, nerves fire improperly, awareness is lessened, and we experience mental fatigue and numbness. It is important where our food comes from, how it is grown, and how clean the environment is.

Use your noodle and make new connections! What animal do you think has the biggest brain? The sperm whale has the biggest brain. (201 lbs.) Our brain weighs only about 3 lbs. A worm has a brain and spinal chord and even a slug is able to learn things!

Activities: Children can make the connection with their finger and light up the energy ball. Examine the chart of the nervous system and realize that nerves reach to all parts of the body and are connected to the brain by the spinal chord. Examine the model of the brain and see how it fits into the skull. Observe the change in the liquid crystals from the heat of their hand. Give them some brain teasers.

Materials: Electric ping pong ball, Skull model, Chart of the nervous system, model of the brain, drawing board and markers, liquid crystals

Content: Ears to Hear:

How many ears do you have? Our two ears collect sound vibrations and tell us more accurately where a sound is coming from. Ears come in all sizes and shapes. What are some other animals that have ears? Discuss the ears of rabbits, elephants, rhinoceros, dogs, bats and whales.

What is a vibration? Quivering, shaking to and fro or side to side, back and forth. Sound waves are vibrations that are invisible and travel through the air.

Ears collect sound vibrations and send messages to our brain that tells us what we hear. They help us keep our balance. We make sounds to communicate warnings, our needs, information, or to sing.

Point out and discuss the parts of the ear:

OUTER EAR = The part you see that collects sound waves and sends them through the Ear canal. This is where wax is made that collects dirt and helps fight off infection. The EAR DRUM receives the sound waves, is also part of the outer ear, and is a piece of skin (like the head of a drum) that sends vibrations to the bones of the inner ear.

MIDDLE EAR = Turns sound waves to vibrations. It consists of the OSSICLES, three tiny bones – HAMMER, ANVIL, and STIRRUP (the smallest bone in our body) that lead to the oval window and send the sound vibrations to the inner ear. The middle ear is connected to the Eustachian tube that regulated the air pressure in the ear. When there is a change of pressure going up a mountain or flying in a plane, this is what causes your ears to make a little pop.

INNER EAR = Here the vibrations go into the COCHLEA that looks like a snail shell. It is filled with fluid and tiny hairs that send electrical signals through the auditory nerve to the brain and the brain translates what we hear. 3 SEMICIRCULAR CANALS are next to the cochlea and keep us balanced. They report to the brain the movements of the head. The skull acts as a resonance chamber like the body on a guitar and amplifies the sound.

How does hearing help us? We can communicate easier if we can hear sounds, gain information about our world, hear warnings or sirens, listen to music, or someone reading a book. How can we protect our ears from injury or infection? Don’t put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow! Use earplugs if noise is too loud. Keep ears dry to keep from infections. A few drops of alcohol will get water out and hydrogen peroxide in a little water will dissolve and rinse out ear wax and dirt)

With swimmers ear the bump or tragus is sore. If there is an inner ear infection you will run a fever and it hurts when you swallow. THREE CHEERS FOR THE EARS!

Activities: Teach them the sign language for I love you and let them know that people who cannot hear use sign language. Examine models of animals with different ears. Experiment making sounds with their body clapping, snapping, and tapping. Make the tuning fork vibrate and listen to the sound. Let children turn around a few times and stop to notice that they get a little dizzy until the fluid in their ears stops moving around. Examine the model of the ear. Listen to recording of sounds animals make. Play some listening games “What is it? Match the Sound, High-Low, or Did You Hear That?”I have a sound bingo game we play and I love to use the melody bells and let them tell me which one is higher or lower or let them put the bells in ascending order from low to high.

Materials: Models of animals showing ears of different sizes and shapes, tuning forks, glass of water to show how vibration travels, Model of the ear, Chart showing the parts of the ear, Chart showing sound waves, Ear puzzle, Drum and peas(or rice) to show vibration, Glass of water to show how water keeps moving when the glass is still .(this is why we get dizzy on rides at the fair or when we stop spinning), Earplugs, melody bells, sound bingo game.

CONTENT: The Respiratory System

With young children I start by taking the fist end off of a simple air toy and asking them what they see inside. Everyone says nothing is there. Then I put the top on and squeeze it and the fist pops off. I tell them that air is inside. Air takes up space.

What was the first thing you did when you were born? Hint -you do it all the time no matter where you are. BREATHE. Take a deep breath. Ask children to watch you and breathe with you: deep breathing, shallow breathing, slow deep breathing, and fast. Make sounds with children and note that sound stops when you run out of air. You must have air in your lungs to sing, cry, laugh, or talk! Can you see air, feel air or smell air? Where is air? Air is around us everywhere. It is INVISIBLE. You can’t see air. Have kids blow on their hand and feel the air. Can you capture the air? Capture it in a balloon.

Do all animals breathe air, plants, or rocks? Some animals do and some get oxygen from water. Show examples of animals and let the children say if they breathe air or water. Plants are our partners in breathing (through their leaves) Plants and animals need fuel for life. Our fuel is oxygen in the air we breathe and nutrients from the food we eat. When you breathe you take in whatever is in the air around you. Poisons, smoke and dirt in the air hurt your lungs and body and you could lose your sense of smell. Fog and clouds of water in the air don’t hurt us. I ask them if different parts of their body are alive (eyes, teeth, bones, skin etc.) All the parts of our body are alive but our hair and nails (explain: when we cut them they don’t bleed)

Do air experiments - Put a scent in the air and see how fast it travels through the air (See who smells it first and can tell you what it is?) I take a very long air bag and ask the children how many breaths it will take for me to blow it up. They usually say 100. I blow into it from a short distance creating a vacuum and blow it up with one breath. They are amazed. Ask them if they know of ways we use air? Ex. Tires, bubble wrap, generate energy, cooling etc.

Every time we breathe our blood grabs oxygen from the air to feed our whole body. We exhale CO2. Trees breathe, grab CO2, and put O in the air for us. Examine the parts of the lung model and trace the path of air: NOSE, TRACHEA( windpipe), 2 LUNGS, 2 Bronchi, Bronchioles(“tree branches”), Alveoli( AIR SACS where RBC grab oxygen and give up co2) Diaphragm/a muscle that helps us breathe. How can we have strong healthy lungs? EXERCISE THE LUNGS and BREATHE CLEAN AIR

All the parts of our body used for breathing are called “THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM”. If we get an infection of the respiratory tract we may have a cold, runny nose, sore throat, tuberculosis, bronchitis, or pneumonia. In asthma the muscles constrict making it hard to breathe

Take a walk outside and notice signs of air around

MATERIALS: Air toys, models of animals, picture of the stoma on the underside of leaves where they breathe, air fist, balloon, dancing ball, twirly gig, fan, air bag, air pump, scent, lung model.

RIPPERS, NIPPERS, AND GRINDERS

“SMILE and show your Teeth!” Ask kids if babies have teeth. When first born you don’t have teeth but depend on milk from a bottle or breast like all other mammals. There is always an exception to everything and once I saw a newborn with a full set of baby teeth. In a few months gums will get sore and teething usually begins. Babies are given teething biscuits or a cold teething ring to help the discomfort. Teeth are alive and need nutrition (calcium from dairy products and fluoride, a natural element) to stay alive and grow healthy. TEETH are made of the hardest substance in the body and remain when skin and bones have disappeared.

Babies are born with no teeth but have the beginnings of teeth before they are born. At about 5-6 months teething begins. The first teeth (primary teeth) are in by 2½ to 3 yrs. old. Primary teeth are pushed out by permanent teeth at the age of 5-6. By 14 we usually have a full set of 28 permanent teeth. Wisdom teeth come in about 20 yrs. The 20 primary teeth help permanent teeth erupt in their normal positions. Permanent teeth form close to the roots of the primary teeth and by the time primary teeth fall out most of the root has been dissolved.

The tooth above the gum is the CROWN. The part below the gum is the ROOT. The crown is covered with ENAMEL the hardest tissue in the body and protects the tooth. DENTIN makes up most of the tooth and is hard, yellowish, and bonelike and protects the soft PULP inside. The pulp contains the nerves and blood and lymph vessels that keep it alive and healthy. The PULP is how the tooth receives nourishment and transmits signals to the brain. Dentin carries some of the nerve fibers that tell you when something is wrong inside the tooth. Blood vessels and nerves enter the tooth through the ROOT CANAL. As most teeth mature, the root canal closes and the pulp is sealed off. These teeth are “rooted”. In “Rootless” teeth the root canal remains open and the tooth continues to grow indefinitely. RODENT incisors are “rootless” ever growing teeth. The molars of dogs and humans are rooted.

The DENTIN and the PULP go into the ROOT of the tooth. CEMENTUM that is like your body’s glue holds the roots of the teeth in the jawbone. A cushioning layer called the periodontal ligament sits between the cementum and the bone and connects the two.

Teeth are present in most vertebrates (exceptions are turtles and modern birds). A significant distinction of mammals is that mammalian teeth are restricted to 3 bones = maxillary, premaxillary, and dentary. The teeth of most vertebrates are replaced throughout the animal’s life. This process doesn’t work well for animals that depend on occlusion(how the teeth fit together) for chewing. It is possible to estimate the age of an animal by determining if primary teeth are present and which ones, or by the amount of wear on the molars. Toothed whales have a single set of teeth.

The Labial teeth are outside close to lips. Lingual are next to tongue and occlusal is where a tooth meets another tooth surface. The efficiency of the mouth to prepare food for digestion depends on the shape and size of the teeth and how they are used. Different mammals have different ways of chewing. Teeth are worn away as they function and form wear facets that appear striated as teeth meet repeatedly in same pattern. Many mammals have fairly flexible articulation and move their jaws in a combination of motions. Guinea pigs slide their jaw forward to grind their food. Some carnivores can only chew up and down such as wolves. Different styles of chewing require different arrangements of the muscles.

There are 4 kinds of teeth:

INCISORS cut and are the most anterior front teeth. In many animals these teeth are used for pincers for grasping or picking in feeding and grooming. Some are MODIFIED to form chisels for gnawing often with a gap (diastema) as in rodents, rabbits, and pikas. There are the scalpel incisors of vampire bats, the tusks of elephants, and the shovel-like lower incisors of hippos, and the lateral incisors of some carnivores like bears, which resemble small stabbing canine teeth.
CANINES (“eye teeth”) tear. When present in mammals (often absent) they are the first tooth in the maxilla, are moderately to very long with a single cusp and 1 root. They are used for stabbing and holding prey. They are usually missing or reduced in size in herbivores. Some species use them as weapons and some animals have huge canines as the musk deer, narwhal, babyrousa, and baboons.
PREMOLARS crush. They lie posterior to the canines and vary greatly in size from a tiny peg in a shrew to a massive crushing organ in a sea otter or wolf. Usually they are smaller and simpler than molars. Premolars are deciduous (there is a milk set)
MOLARS grind. They are not replaced but exist only as adult teeth. They are the most posterior teeth in the jaw. We are considered an adult when eruption is complete. Molars vary greatly in size, shape, and function.

The # of teeth and type of teeth in an animal’s mouth tell a lot about it’s past. In toothed whales the # of teeth has increased, however in most mammals the # of teeth has been reduced in evolutionary history.

TEETH HELP:

1. Shape the face and jaw and are the structural support of the facial muscles for expression.

2. Play a key role in the digestive system to get and chew food (MASTICATION)

3. Baby teeth guide permanent teeth into position

4. The teeth, lips, and tongue are essential for speaking or singing.

5. Used for grooming.

6. Used for defense

The 32 permanent teeth are:

8 incisors are cutters or nippers and have 1 root

4 canines are tearers or rippers and have 1 root

8 premolars are grinders and have 1 root

8 molars are grinders. Molars in the top jaw have 3 roots. Molars in bottom jaw have 2 roots.

4 wisdom teeth grow in about the age of 20

Humans are DIPHYODONTS meaning they develop 2 sets of teeth. Rotting food, bacteria, and plaque causes DECAY. HALITOSIS is bad breath from not cleaning your mouth, food rotting in your mouth, decay, or from certain medications. PERIODONTAL Disease of the gums can be a cause of bad breath. What to do: keep mouth clean by brushing teeth, flossing, and rinsing with mouthwash. PLAQUE is a clear film that sticks to the teeth and acts like a magnet for bacteria and sugar. Bacteria break the sugar down into acids that eat away tooth enamel causing holes called cavities. Plaque also causes GINGIVITIS = a gum disease where the gums become red, swollen and sore. Some bacteria in the mouth are helpful and some are harmful.

Before toothpaste people used ground up chalk or charcoal, lemon juice, ashes. About 100 yrs. ago someone invented a mint paste to clean teeth. When you brush you need a pea size bit of toothpaste and spit it out after brushing – don’t swallow it.

Fluoride helps make teeth strong and protects them from cavities. Dentists may treat teeth with topical fluoride or you may take a vitamin with fluoride. Too much fluoride can cause tooth discoloration. Discoloration can also occur from prolonged use of antibiotics. Fluoride is a natural element found in many things like water or food. It makes stronger enamel. Topical fluoride makes the enamel stronger and more resistant to acid. Some toothpaste has fluoride.

EXPERIMENT:

Fluoride rinse solution from dentist

2 eggs

1 bottle of white vinegar

3 containers

Pour 4“ fluoride solution in 1 container and put egg in to soak for 5 minutes. Pour 4“ of vinegar in other containers. Put the eggs in the vinegar. The egg without fluoride will start to bubble.

KEEP YOUR TEETH HEALTHY BY:

Brush 2 times a day
Brush all of your teeth
Use toothbrush with soft bristles and take your time.
Replace your toothbrush when bristles wear out
Flossing your teeth gets rid of food your toothbrush can’t reach.
Visit a dentist at least once a year.
Be careful about what you eat and drink = fruits, vegetables, and water

Bottle mouth or milk bottle decay is when the milk is allowed to bath the teeth for hours. A bottle sucked all day or night can result in pocked, pitted or discolored teeth. Severe cases result in cavities and the need to pull the teeth.

Orthodontic treatment may be needed to correct one’s bite and straighten the teeth. Crooked teeth are harder to clean and more likely to have cavities. Crooked teeth can affect the way a person chews and talks and how the smile looks. Retainers help keep teeth in their position.

Disorders of the Teeth:

CAVITIES happen when bacteria in plaque digest carbohydrates in food and produce acid that dissolves the tooth enamel.
IMPACTED WISDOM TEETH occur when there is not enough room for them to come in. They can damage other teeth, become impacted or infected. You can see them on X-ray. They are usually removed.
MALOCCLUSION is the failure of the teeth to meet properly causing an overbite, underbite or crowding. It can be corrected with Orthodontia
PERIODONTAL DISEASE is when gums and bones become diseased. GINGIVITIS is the inflammation of the gums. There is redness, swelling, and bleeding caused by inadequate brushing and flossing and a buildup of tartar (a hardened film of plaque). If not treated the gums loosen around the teeth and pockets of bacteria and pus form that damage the bone and cause tooth loss. Materials: A bald baby with no teeth, a teething ring, puzzle of a tooth showing parts, examples of teeth from animals or skulls showing teeth (beaver, cat, shark are good examples), x-rays of teeth especially showing primary and secondary, toothbrush, floss, cast model of human teeth (from a dentist), model of the jaw of a shark showing many rows of teeth, picture to label parts of a tooth, chart to keep for when they brush their teeth. I also have kids echo words that especially use the teeth to make ( f, th, s, v, and z words). You might give them some tongue twisters too!

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