Teeth

Our chompers not only help us chew when we chow down on our favorite foods but they also aid when we produce sounds and learn to speak. It’s no secret that oral hygiene is a matter of utmost importance in almost every society. And even though we try and avoid, it we need to visit our dentists regularly for a check up or a routine cleaning, and if you’re lucky you won’t need a root canal. Sit back, settle into your seat and let the novocaine kick in as we sink our teeth into teeth on this week’s episode of FYI.

Transcript

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our Chompers not only help us chew when we Chow Down on our favorite foods but they also Aid when we produce sounds and learn to speak it's no secret that oral hygiene is a matter of utmost importance in almost every society and even though we try and avoid it we need to visit our dentists regularly for a checkup or a routine cleaning and if you're lucky you won't need a root canal sit back settle into your seat and let the Nova cane kick in as we sink our teeth into teeth on this week's episode of FYI welcome to for your info English you got it you got it hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting episode of FYI folks and today we're going to take a look at teeth and right off the bat I'm going to start with this question are you like me do you dread go going to the dentist it's a necessary evil every time I go I feel better but just getting in the door is half the battle and that's a great expression to start out with showing up is half the battle in life so that means just going there just being present and you're halfway there and thanks to all of you for showing up on this week's episode of FYI we'll start out with the fact that teeth is an irregular plural like foot and feet well you've got tooth and teeth and what about sheep that's right the plural is also sheep we don't say sheeps but we're not here to talk about sheep we're here to talk about teeth let's kick off with our intro I started off by saying our Chompers not only help us chew now let's start with that word Chompers Chomp Chomp Chomp I think the perfect translation would be pones in Spanish it means teeth or really big teeth so they not only help us chew when we Chow Down and to chew is masad and anytime you're eating solid food well you have to chew your food your mom's been telling you that since you were a kid and don't talk while you're chewing you could choke hey there's a lot of Cha Cha Cha the next word too to Chow Down to Chow Down means to eat come on guys let's Chow Down let's dig in these are totally native expressions and if you want to sound like a native try and incorporate them into your next meal especially if you're going to have lunch with your English teacher or some of your fellow students next time you're chowing down use the word let's Chow Down let's dig in so when we're chowing down on our favorite foods but that's not all they're good for they also Aid and Aid think of this word first aid prosos so to Aid is to help they also Aid when we produce sounds and when we learn to speak of course our teeth our tongue and the position of those all have something to do with the sounds we make just think about it if you're missing a tooth you might have a bit of a lisp so if you have a lisp well that's might maybe because you were born with a speech impediment maybe it's because you're imitating Daffy Duck because this is Despicable or maybe it's because you're missing a tooth so we all know that one little adjustment to the tongue the lips or even the teeth could change the way we speak and it's no secret that oral hygiene now I don't know this word in Spanish for the life of me I can't pronounce it I can't well in English it's really easy do you guys know the group KISS ah want to rock and roll all night and party every day well the basist his name is Jean Simmons well just say hi to him hi Jean oral Hy jeene yeah that means keeping your mouth clean not just your teeth but your gums as well and that's an easy one to remember gum is Che right chewing gum well just think hey wait I've got some gum on my gum and this way you can associate it and you'll never forget it because all of you already know the word gum you just didn't know or perhaps you didn't know the secondary meaning of it and a shout out to my student David we looked at this in class a couple weeks ago and it's true oral hygiene is a matter unto of utmost importance in almost every society who doesn't value good teeth good breath and even though we try and avoid it we need to visit our dentists regularly yeah I know I'm one of those people I'm guilty as charged I always put it off and I'm going to send a shout out to my dentist right now while I'm at it and it's great just like any doctor you go for a routine checkup and in the case of your teeth and your gums a routine cleaning because we all know that plaque builds up and also you can get cavities tooth decay we're going to look at all this vocabulary as we get into this episode as we sink our teeth into it I know I know I think I'm funny and then I said and if you're lucky you won't need a root canal and I learned that word in Spanish the hard way because I needed one I had to go to the dentist and he said you need an endodon and I I whipped out my phone and I looked it up and I said the dreaded root canal oh no we even use this as an idiomatic expression in English it's like getting a root canal we say it for something that's really tedious something that's a pain in the neck and then I said sit back which is what you do in the dentist chair settle into your seat aod I think you say that means get cozy and let the novacaine kick in and novacaine I believe is laughing gas it's what the dentists usually use when they need to numb you and to numb is a word with a silent B in Spanish it's yeah I couldn't imagine going through any of those procedures without a little bit of novacaine and to kick in is to start to have an effect and I already mentioned sinking our teeth into something which is very similar to Spanish so let's get started you guys know the drill I know I know I'm on fire today with my jokes did you get the double meaning well a drill is that thing you heard in the intro Z but also you know the drill means you know how things work you know how we do it here on FYI also a drill is an exercise in our classes every week we do drills speaking of a shout out to all my patrons who make this show possible they produce this show and as a thank you they get bonus episodes every week PDFs with all the vocabulary and expressions weekly classes with me with an amazing group of students and you can even get private classes with me but all that's over on patreon.com Alberto Alonso and if you're on patreon this week I'm going to be sharing the dentist episode of my book English everywhere it's got a lot of useful vocabulary some that we'll look at here and some that I might forget to mention but I think between the two you guys will have this down to a tea not to teeth but to a tea hey the jokes don't always work out so I'd like to send a shout out to all my students on patreon especially my super duper students Luis Marta Javier Paco and Roberto and don't forget about the students who get a monthly private class with me that's right Carmen Lena Issa Paco David Jose Maria patrio and Edgar and the community is growing every single day so thank you thank you thank you students and keep kicking ass sasando if you want to join our curious Community go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso we'll see you there oh and if you don't have my books you should pick up a cop I've got five different books I'll go in order so I don't forget them English everywhere this book is the milk this book is the milk to English on the go and my latest book this book is the [ __ ] you can pick them up wherever fine books are sold so you know the drill we usually start by defining the topic every week so what are human teeth what are their function their purpose well human teeth function to mechanically break down that means to make smaller so they break down items of food by cutting and crushing them have you ever played Candy Crush well crush is a blast and what do you do in that game you crush fruit you crush candy hence the name Candy Crush and all that cutting and crushing is to prepare it for swallowing and digesting which are also connected to the mouth they are all considered part of the human digestive system remember guys I'm not a medical expert I'm just trying to give you 101 the basics humans have four types of teeth incizors canines premolars and molers each of them have a specific function let's see if you know what each one does the incizors what do they do they cut the food the canines tear the the food that means to rip it apart and the molers and premolar work together to finally crush the food to make it swallowable also the roots of the teeth are embedded in the maxila which we normally call the upper jaw in layman's terms and the bottom teeth are part of the mandible or what we would call the lower jaw you know the movie Jaws the shark his name is mandibulas hey they could have called him gums too enas FAS and our species humans like most other mammals are diant this basically means that we develop two sets of teeth the first set is usually called primary teeth milk teeth or baby teeth as we call them in the United States they all make sense when there are three different ways to say something find the easiest way and stick with it but I recommend you try and at least recognize the other ways of saying it so let's see I'm going to test your knowledge on teeth here how many teeth do we have in our milk teeth our baby teeth how many are in that set again this is an average some people are born missing a tooth or with an extra tooth the average is 20 teeth usually the baby teeth start to appear or to erupt as it's called I like that it sounds more dramatic well around 6 months or so they start popping out of the gums and as we know this can be very painful for a young infant this process is called teething and we use this expression in business too as you'll see we have a lot of idiomatic expressions that have to do with teeth but we'll look at those in the bonus episode which is exclusively for patrons so what are you waiting for anyway getting back to the business sense of the word teething problems or teething pains are initial difficulties in a business in a process problem ini problems that occur at the beginning of a process but we'll look at more idiomatic expressions in the bonus episode we'll also look at the one man who is responsible for making all Americans brush their teeth before him such a small segment of the population brush their teeth and after him the majority a guy named Claude Hopkins but we'll learn more about him in the bonus episode we'll also take a look at those expressions as I said we'll look at some oral hygiene tips also some fun facts and so much more I hope you guys will join us in the bonus episode if you want to give it a listen and you're not a patron just contact me and I can send you the link and you can give it a listen for free I'm convinced you're going to love the bonus episode every week I won't even mention the classes we have a blast in our classes we were just talking about baby teeth but what about your adult teeth how many adult teeth does an average adult have did you say 32 nice job again give or take ballpark I'm missing a couple right now but I'm going to get the implants when I can afford it but as we said earlier you can't put a price on oral hygiene and we'll see how it can lead to other more serious diseases as well but we break those 32 teeth into eight iners or your front teeth four Kine teeth eight premolar and 12 molers that's an average set now I have fangs my K9 teeth are fangs I think you say colos in Spanish they are what a vampire has here's a little trivia question for you how many teeth do you think mosquitoes have more or less than us I won't make you guess exactly that's impossible did you say more that's right mosquitoes have 47 teeth again these are averages let's take a look at other parts of the mouth we already mentioned the gums the tongue it's important to brush your tongue as well as we all know that's where our taste buds are those are the things that make us taste bitter things sweet sour we've also got the roof of our mouth or the alviola ridge but generally people call it the roof roof of your mouth we've also got our lips as we said before and what are teeth made of I mean are they bones they look like bones right well although they're hard and white they are made up of different materials than your bones are one thing that makes bones stronger in this case is that bones can heal themselves over a long period of time while teeth don't have the ability to recover from stresses but don't underestimate enamel it is one of the hardest substances in your body and it's what coats your teeth I love that worda but alsoo makes sense doesn't it I love when things make sense because it makes my job as a teacher much easier also I want you to look around at your friends next time you're having lunch or chowing down or maybe you've already done it because you're very observant but I want you to look at everybody's Grill everybody's Grill that's a very native way of saying their mouth their teeth you'll hear it in a lot of hipop songs but you'll notice no two mouths are the same I'm not just talking about the teeth the combination of teeth lips but even if you were to take the lips out of the equation and the tongue teeth are as unique as fingerprints and as we've seen they are an important tool in forensics it's not just the size of your teeth but the way they are arranged inside your mouth is unique to you and you alone so you're special fly on Little Snowflake I'm just kidding but that's kind of interesting nonetheless and every human has their own bite that cannot be replicated by anyone else even if you've worn braces and braces are these things that straighten your teeth when I was a kid they were made of metal now you can't even see them they're plastic I think even retainers have gotten more comfortable the good news is there have been many many breakthroughs in dentistry here's a little fun fact teeth are like icebergs no I don't mean they're cold I mean that most of them are unseen about a third of them are underneath the gum line so there's much more to your teeth than meets the eye and that's why it's also important to take care of your gums and your tongue what do you think the germs aren't going to jump from one to the other now I'm unfortunate because in my family we have a history of bad gums some people are prone to cavities some are prone to breathing disorders and some are prone to bleeding gums we call it gum disease it's a pretty logical one but don't worry your saliva is doing its part as well that's a word you'll recognize but it's pronounced a little bit differently you say saliva we say saliva well you will produce roughly roughly is masom menos we say that much more than more or less you'll produce roughly 10,000 gallons of saliva in your lifetime don't worry Europeans I know you don't know gallons very well let's compare it to swimming pools that's enough saliva enough spit to fill two swimming pools but I'm going to spit it out right now well we use the same expression saliva is essential it serves very important functions in overall health and obviously it makes food easier to swallow it breaks it down a word we looked at before it also contains means enzymes that Aid in the digestion process and how many times have you done this you've got a little piece of something between your teeth and you use your saliva like mouthwash sure it can wash away pieces of food particles from your teeth as well obviously there's no substitute for brushing your teeth and using mouthwash and flossing but if you're in the middle of a meeting and you've got a piece of hamon stuck in your teeth a little saliva will do the trick saliva also contains Calcium and phosphate which help neutralize the acids in plaque and plaque is what causes tooth decay and if we rewind people have been realizing the need to take care of their teeth their oral hygiene since back in the Egyptian days even the Greeks in 500 BC they were supposed edly brushing their teeth in 500 BC and these ancient Greeks they didn't have the same toothpaste we have now they used a mixture of iron rust ooh that sounds really good and coral powder but I guess since it was abrasive it did clean their teeth I just don't know if it's good to ingest rust and they used these toothbrush type instruments that they made of twigs and a twig is a little will stick from a tree and even in ancient Egypt and careful with that word it's not ancient it's ancient archaeologists discovered Egyptian mummies with simpler versions of modernday braces on their teeth so oral hygiene straight teeth white teeth have been a priority since the dawn of time and if they aren't a priority in your life we know it you can tell when someone one doesn't take care of their teeth it's not exactly an attractive quality and I have to admit even though I brush daily two three times a day sometimes I should go in for a routine cleaning more often I should eat less junk food and drink less soda so we could all do a little better to improve our oral hygiene cuz we've already proved the importance of it imagine going into a job interview and you've got dragon breath that's a iial way of saying halosis I don't know about you but when somebody breathes in my face and you can tell that they don't brush their teeth or haven't in a while it's pretty nasty nasty is another way of saying disgusting or gross but the ancient Egyptians knew this they didn't only want to have clean teeth but they wanted them to be straight as well and now teeth whitening is a big business oral hygiene in general a shout out to my friend Mike who works in teeth whitening if you guys are patrons and you want me to send you a sample pack let me know and I'll give Mike your address but also teeth whitening like everything it's got to be done in moderation cuz if you overdo it well then maybe you're bleaching your teeth and you're having the opposite effect an example is in my case I use a mouthwash from time to time with chlorexidine it's a chemical and it's for sensitive gums but I've been told many times to not overuse it because it will stain my teeth so even the stuff that we're using to treat we need to use it in moderation and that's really a dentist who can tell you that we can't be experts in everything and our brother-in-law also we're going to clear up a doubt over here what's the difference between a dentist and an orthodontist cuz I remember growing up and hearing both well both of them are trying to make your smile more beautiful more healthy and dentists cover a broad range a wide range of oral health issues cavities gum disease broken chipped or missing teeth and orthodontists are dentists that continued their training in the United States now at the time of this recording it's an additional three years and there they focus primarily on tooth and jaw alignment and I guess that's why when I was a kid I remember if you needed a retainer or braces the dentist would send you to an orthodontist let's talk a little bit about different kinds of teeth as well some people have an overbite that means their front teeth their top teeth extend further than their bottom teeth some people have an underbite that's the opposite some people like my wife I love you honey they have buck teeth that's when your two front teeth are big I think it's sexy some people have a gap in their teeth I think Madonna has a gap in her teeth crooked teeth I don't know if that's sexy that's why you can get a retainer or braces straighten them out some people have fillings you call them impos I remember my grandma God rested her soul Maria lelia and alaria she had Dentures but also in her generation they didn't know the importance of oral hygiene she was more concerned sewing clothes for her four kids cuz they didn't have a premark around the corner or thow or anything like that so she didn't have any extra time to run to the local dentist and if she wanted to go to the dentist she would have to take a bus from the village to Al Maria which was like you know a full day Affair but now things have changed we know the importance of oral hygiene most people people have access to dentistry in the the Western World I should say and I think everybody again maybe you guys can prove me wrong is there a society that thinks that crooked yellow stained broken teeth are sexy please let me know but it's not just about the Aesthetics and having good breath but if you don't have good oral hygiene you could have increased risks of Alzheimer's disease heart disease and even Di diabetes and although that's pretty serious as far as I'm concerned the worst part is it affects your smile and don't let anybody or anything take that smile off your face it's the thing that draws people to you and that reminds me of a joke Before We Say Goodbye what's the longest word in the English language Smiles why there's a mile between the two s's and we'll wrap up with a quote from Tom Wilson he said a smile is happiness you'll find right under your nose and that's an idiomatic expression it's like when you're looking for your car keys and they're right under your nose so now understanding that double meaning here's the quote again a smile is happiness you'll find right under your nose I hope this episode of FYI made you smile and I hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of this week's FYI oh