Did you know that the American Dental Association recommends visiting your dentist every six months for a routine checkup and cleaning? This allows your provider to monitor your oral health so they can catch and treat any areas of concern, like thinning enamel or swollen gums, before they become more serious.
However, familiarizing yourself with your own dental condition helps ensure that you’ll notice concerning changes, so you can contact your dentist for help. If you’re unsure what the different parts of your mouth are or what they do, continue reading to learn more!
What are the Different Parts of My Mouth?
Understanding more about the different components that make up your mouth can help you identify issues when they occur. Below is more detailed information about the different parts and their functionalities:
- Alveolar Bone and Jaw. Your jawbone provides structural support for your mandible, and the alveolar bone surrounds your teeth and contains the sockets for them to keep them safely rooted in place.
- Gums. Your connective tissues protect the roots of your teeth and help provide a seal to keep bacteria from penetrating your enamel or jawbone. They also help deliver nutrients through their blood supply to the pulp inside your pearly whites.
- Lips and cheeks. These tissues surround your mouth to keep the various parts contained safely inside. They allow you to express emotion, enunciate words, and help you chew and speak.
- Salivary glands. Saliva helps rinse unhealthy bacteria, leftover bits of food, and other debris from your oral cavity and has a nearly neutral pH balance to counter potential acid damage to your enamel. It’s secreted by three main glands, though there can be hundreds of minor ones, located in your oral cavity, cheeks, palate, and even sinuses.
- Teeth. Your teeth help you bite and chew food and provide a surface you press your tongue against to enunciate words. They contain a hard outer layer of enamel, which protects a softer lower layer of dentin that, in turn, covers the tender pulp and nerves inside the roots.
- Temporomandibular joint (TMJ). These sliding-disc joints anchor your jawbone to your skull just in front of each ear.
- Tongue. This muscle is one of the hardest-working in your body and helps you manipulate food to be more easily ground up, swallowed, and digested, and it is constantly pushing saliva down your throat. It also contains thousands of taste buds that help you detect all your favorite flavors.
Now that you know more about how the various parts of your mouth work together, you can monitor your own dental health and more easily recognize potential problems!
Meet the Author
Dr. Evan Pedersen is passionate about providing patients with top-quality services in a relaxing environment, ensuring a stress-free experience they can rely on. He earned his dental degree at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston and has been helping patients enhance their lives by improving their dental health since 2013. Today, he provides a comprehensive menu of services to meet all your needs, whether you need a routine checkup or a more complex procedure. You can request an appointment on the website or by calling (512) 777-0866.