Your teeth are remarkably strong. They bite, tear and grind their way through thousands of meals every year, often without us giving them a second thought.
But strong doesn’t mean indestructible.
One of the easiest ways to chip, crack or wear down a perfectly healthy tooth is to ask it to do a job it was never designed for. And some of the most common culprits have nothing to do with food.
Here are 10 things your teeth should definitely not be used for.
- Opening packets
That stubborn plastic packet might seem like no match for your front teeth, but biting and pulling packaging puts unusual pressure on them. One awkward movement can chip an edge or even damage an existing filling.
- Opening bottles
Your teeth are not a bottle opener. Using them to pry off lids creates enormous forces, particularly on the front teeth. A party trick can very quickly become a broken tooth.
- Cutting sticky tape
It’s incredibly common when wrapping presents or packing boxes. You’re holding everything in place, your scissors are out of reach, and your teeth seem like the obvious solution.
Unfortunately, repeatedly biting through tape can cause small chips and wear along the edges of your teeth.
- Cracking nuts or shells
Nut shells, crab shells and other hard foods should be opened with the appropriate tools. Teeth can handle plenty of pressure during normal chewing, but biting suddenly onto something extremely hard concentrates that force into a very small area.
- Chewing pens and pencils
This is often an unconscious habit, particularly while working or concentrating. Over time, repeatedly chewing hard objects can wear the biting edges of teeth and potentially contribute to small cracks.
It’s also not particularly hygienic when you consider where your pen has been!
- Holding things
Keys, shopping bags, hairpins, nails, clothing tags: people use their mouths as an extra pair of hands surprisingly often.
Apart from potentially damaging your teeth, holding objects in your mouth can be a choking risk. Take the extra few seconds and use your hands instead.
- Biting your fingernails
Nail biting doesn’t only affect your nails. It repeatedly places pressure on the same areas of your front teeth and may contribute to wear or small chips over time.
It can also introduce bacteria and dirt from underneath your fingernails into your mouth.
- Chewing ice
Ice is technically water, but that doesn’t make chewing it harmless.
Ice is extremely hard, and biting down on a solid cube can damage enamel, fillings, crowns and other dental restorations. If you enjoy ice in your drinks, let it melt rather than crunching through it.
- Undoing knots
Fishing line, shoelaces, string and stubborn knots often end up between people’s teeth.
The problem is that pulling against something while gripping it with your teeth creates forces quite different from ordinary chewing. There’s also the risk of whatever you’re pulling suddenly slipping and causing your teeth to slam together.
- Biting clothing or removing tags
That annoying loose thread or clothing tag can be tempting to bite straight through.
Your incisors are designed to bite through food, but fabric, thread and plastic tags can be surprisingly tough. Pulling at them can place unnecessary strain on the teeth and jaw.
Teeth Are Strong, But They Have Limits
Enamel is the hardest substance in the human body, which is pretty impressive. But unlike a fingernail, enamel doesn’t simply grow back when a piece breaks off.
Sometimes a tiny chip is mainly cosmetic. In other situations, a crack can extend deeper into the tooth and cause sensitivity, pain when biting or more significant problems later.
Dental restorations also have their limits. Fillings, veneers and crowns are designed to withstand normal biting and chewing forces, not bottle caps, pens and plastic packaging.
If you’ve been using your teeth as tools for years and nothing has happened, you might feel like you’ve gotten away with it. You probably have. But dental damage can happen in a split second, and it’s much easier to reach for the scissors than repair a broken tooth.
If you’ve chipped a tooth, noticed a new rough edge or have a tooth that suddenly feels different when you bite, come and visit us. We can take a closer look and make sure there isn’t more damage than you can see.
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