Human jaws: anatomy, efficiency, and other interesting facts.

The jaw is a bony structure that forms the basic framework of the face and mouth in vertebrate animals including humans.

Human physiology is a complex, yet exciting topic to study. While eating you can feel the importance of jaw bones. The upper non-moveable jaw bone is called the maxilla and the lower movable one is called the mandible, which is the strongest bone of the human skeleton. The activity of these bones helps in chewing and biting the food. The jawbone is the only example of a double-hinged bone in the human body, which is functionally regulated by an intricate and sensitive neuromuscular system. But, there are other interesting things you must know about your jawbone. Go through this article for details.

The relationship between teeth and jaw bone along with their functions:

Can you eat a large piece of food as it is? To eat such items you need to break down these items. The combined action of teeth and jaw bones helps in this process. Basically, teeth and jaw bones soften the solid food by cutting them into smaller pieces. Because harder and large food particles may get clogged inside the digestive or even gastrointestinal tract. Hard and bone-like teeth are held by sockets in both jaws. When you start consuming food, your jaw comes closer and your teeth fit in a slightly overlapping manner to break those food items. When fully grown, there are 16 pairs of teeth in each row. These teeth are called incisors, canine, premolar, and molar. There located some muscles between the skull and mandible. As soon as these muscles get tightened, the mandible is pulled up against the maxilla, helping in a bite. As these muscles become relaxed again, the mouth remains open. For better grinding of food, the lower jawbone is endowed with the property of moving sideways, forward, and backward.

The power of the human bite:

Can you imagine how powerful a human bite can be? In a single bite, the human jaw can exert the highest value of 125 kg of force. Generally, the average weight of bite is 50 kg and 70 kg for females and males respectively.

The invention of agriculture changed the jaw structure:

The human body has been evolving since the first day of arrival. Before knowing agriculture, humans used to eat by hunting. They had much stronger jawbones. As the food habit changed, the mouth and bite strength required to decrease, leading to a modified jawbone structure for chewing softer food materials.

Other interesting facts about jawbone:

Apart from age and obesity, the lower jaw plays a crucial role in snoring, due to its structural link to the air passage. If dental crowding is observed in children, doctors opt for Jaw expansion before adolescence. This increases the nasal airway passage, and tongue space, and ultimately reduces dental crowding.

Aren't those facts about your jawbone really fascinating?