Why Do Teeth Chatter When I Laugh?
Teeth chattering happens when there are some abnormal conditions in your mouth. You may have dental problems such as:
Dental abscesses (infections) or other infections in your tooth roots and gums. Dental decay (cavities).
Tooth loss due to periodontal disease (gum disease). Gum disease is caused by bacteria living inside your gum tissue. Periodontal disease is caused by bacteria living inside your teeth.
The main cause of dental chattering is cavities. Cavity is an accumulation of dead cells in the tooth structure.
These dead cells produce a noise when they move around and bump into each other causing them to make sound. Some common causes include:
Cavities are usually not life threatening but if left untreated can lead to permanent damage to your teeth and bone growths (osteoporosis).
Some treatments for dental chattering include:
Treating the cavity with a filling. A dentist will use a special type of fillings to stop the problem from recurring.
Other types of treatment include: Fillings can be made out of different materials like gold, silver, plastic, ceramic etc. They are placed under your gum line and are held in place using screws or pins. Gummy vitamins (vitamins that contain sugar) can also be used to treat cavities.
Why Do My Teeth Chatter When I’m Sick?
When you catch a cold or flu, your body experiences many changes. One of these changes is related to temperature. When your temperature drops you may experience:
Coughing. Sneezing.
Sore throat. Headaches. Stuffy nose. Body aches and pains. Vomiting and diarrhea or fever (symptoms of the flu). Fatigue (lack of energy).
A common cause of chattering teeth is the common cold. When a person catches a cold, it is their body’s natural defense to protect the body from outside threats (viruses and bacteria).
Your salivary glands produce less saliva when your sick which dries out your mouth and makes your teeth chatter. Chattering teeth is also caused by a dry throat, fever, and dehydration.
Some treatment options to stop chattering teeth when sick include:
Drinking warm liquids. Sucking on hard candy or chewing gum.
Spicy foods can also help alleviate chattering teeth (cayenne pepper, chili powder, red hot candies). Gargling with warm salt water may help soothe a sore throat.
Why Do My Teeth Vibrate When I Put Them Together?
Teeth vibrate when they are exposed to pressure and sound vibrations. Teeth are connected to your jaw bone. Your jaw bone resonates with sounds that you make (speaking, singing, laughing) which causes your teeth to vibrate. A person may experience tooth chattering after having a root canal. During a regular dental procedure, your dentist stops up the canals in the roots of your teeth with rubber cement. Sometimes this cement leaks out of your tooth and gets into your jaw bone. Once in your jaw bone, the cement vibrates when sound is nearby.
A person may also feel vibrations in their teeth due to an ear infection. The round band of tissue inside your ear (tympanic membrane) that moves when sound hits it may become infected.
This is called otitis media or an ear infection. The infection causes the tympanic membrane to swell and push against your teeth. The pressure and sound vibrations from the swollen ear drum cause your teeth to vibrate or chatter when you speak, laugh, whistle, and sometimes even breath.
Another cause of chattering teeth is TMJ (temporomandibular joint dysfunction). The temporomandibular joint is where your jaw connects to your skull.
When this joint begins to malfunction, it will no longer align properly. This misalignment causes your teeth and jaws to lock up or stick in certain positions. In some cases, your teeth will even lock in an open-mouth position (this is called bruxism). The clenching and locking of the jaw cause the teeth to constantly vibrate or chatter. People with this disorder report having a sore neck, jaw, or even a constant ear ache.
Treatment options for chattering teeth due to an ear infection include:
Antibiotics. Pain medication for the earache.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs (for children).
Treatment options for chattering teeth due to bruxism (the medical term for clenching and grinding your teeth) include:
Muscle relaxants. Device to help you stop grinding your teeth.
Drug therapy to help control the jaw clenching.
Treatment options for chattering teeth due to misalignment of the jaw (temporomandibular joint dysfunction) include:
Splints. Jaw surgery.
Physical therapy.
Can You Regrow Teeth?
Most mammals have the ability to regrow their teeth. Not just rodents like mice and rats, but also animals like cattle and deer. The average human does not have this ability.
Why?
Because we tend to wear our teeth down with things like grains and other hard food items. Grains are the downfall of healthy teeth! The constant abrasive rubbing damages tooth enamel and wears down your teeth.
Before the advent of grains, humans didn’t suffer from the amount of tooth decay and loss that we do today.
The main reason?
Grains are extremely abrasive. Without grains in their diet, early humans still ate foods that were abrasive. They ate meat, vegetables, and fruit like all other mammals. There was no fluoride in their water to protect their teeth. Despite all this, they had few issues with tooth decay!
For the early human, losing a tooth wasn’t a big deal. They didn’t have the luxury of visiting a dentist every time they got a chipped tooth or a cavity.
A chipped tooth wouldn’t be able to damage the rest of the teeth. A cavity wouldn’t spread to the rest of the teeth. It wasn’t a big deal to lose a tooth or two.
Why?
Because they had the ability to grow new teeth! All mammals have this ability. Unfortunately, humans have lost this regenerative power. We’re stuck with the teeth we have.
When mammals lose a tooth, they grow a new one in its place. This is called dental regeneration.
Human babies are born with a full set of teeth called neonatal teeth (also called natal teeth). These teeth start to fall out when the adult teeth start to grow in. We all know that our adult teeth never replace themselves if lost.
But, it is still possible for us to grow new ones. It may not be our adult teeth, but we can regenerate or grow new baby teeth!
When an adult tooth is lost or removed, the area where the tooth was erupts a new baby tooth. This is called paedogenesis.
It’s quite rare for humans to experience this. But it does occur in some people.
Some children are born with extra teeth. These extra teeth are often referred to as wolf teeth or milk teeth.
Sometimes, a child will be born with one or more of these extra teeth. Some children end up with several of these extra teeth. In either case, these extra teeth are often temporary. In most cases, these extra teeth are adults teeth in the making. Sometimes, they’re an indication that a child was exposed to a high level of hormones or that the child has some genetic problems (such as Down Syndrome).
Sometimes, this process doesn’t work correctly and a child is born with teeth that are neither baby teeth nor adult teeth. These teeth are called supernumerary teeth (or supernumerary dentition).
These teeth are often removed since they can cause issues with chewing food, talking, etc.
There have been rare cases of people being born with extra permanent teeth. It’s possible for someone to be born with a dental abnormality that results in an extra tooth.
This has only happened to four people in the entire world! There is even a case of a patient who was missing a wisdom tooth but grew a new one in its place.
The ability to get extra teeth or have a wisdom tooth grown in its place is known as hyperdontia. Having supernumerary teeth is known as polydontia.
These cases of supernumerary teeth or growing new wisdom teeth can be attributed to the human body still believing that it’s a young child and not an adult. Children have more teeth than adults.
This is because children grow more teeth before their adult teeth come in. These extra adult teeth in children are called milk teeth. We all grow milk teeth when we’re young and then the milk teeth are replaced with permanent teeth (which explains why we don’t grow new adult teeth when a tooth is lost). In some cases, the body still may think that it’s a child and it will grow these supernumerary teeth.
Sometimes, people are born with extra sets of teeth altogether (not just in place of adult teeth). These people are called hexadonts.
It’s extremely rare to see a hexadont. These people are similar to snakes in that they have multiple sets of teeth in their mouth at one time.
Snakes are known as hepserks (having multiple sets of teeth) and they shed their teeth when the skin and scales grow too large for their mouths. The shed teeth are often called socks.
Most of the time, there are no extra teeth or the teeth disappear altogether when we grow up. A person with extra teeth wouldn’t have any serious problems other than possible speech impediments.
The supernumerary teeth could interfere with the proper growth and placement of permanent teeth. This could lead to a malformed tooth or improper chewing ability.
Some people claim that they’ve seen people with extra sets of teeth. However, upon closer inspection, these “extra” teeth turn out to be wisdom teeth or another type of tooth altogether.
We all grow twenty baby teeth and eight adult teeth. We don’t grow anymore teeth once we become adults.
Most of us only grow a full set of four wisdom teeth. However, some people are born with more than four. These people are said to have hyperdontia (an overgrowth of teeth). Sometimes people are born with less than four; these people are said to be hypodontic.
The supernumerary teeth can also be either supernumerary mandibular teeth (extra teeth growing in the jaw) or supernumerary maxillary teeth (extra teeth growing in the mouth).
It’s interesting to note that there have only been four recorded cases of people with extra teeth that grew in their mouth. It’s extremely rare to be born with supernumerary teeth.
There was a man in the 1800s named Ned Calvert who had an extra set of teeth. He sold the teeth to a museum for a considerable amount of money.
The teeth have long since been lost or discarded since then. However, I’ve heard rumors that the teeth are somewhere at the museum. If they are still there, they should be in a box or jar of some sort.
If you’re looking for the teeth, try looking in the basement of the museum. The basement is off limits to the public and is strictly for employees only.
If you do go snooping around down there, you’d better not get caught.
Sources & references used in this article:
The argument culture: Stopping America’s war of words by D Tannen – 2012 – books.google.com
The way of the shaman by MJ Harner, J Mishlove, A Bloch – 1990 – academia.edu
Sensor-based chatter detection and avoidance by spindle speed selection by D Carnegie – 2016 – e-artnow
An explanation of low-speed chatter effects by S Smith, T Delio – 1992 – asmedigitalcollection.asme.org
The Berlin key or how to do words with things by B Katie, M Katz – 2006 – Harmony
How to meditate: A practical guide by TR Sisson, RL Kegg – 1969 – asmedigitalcollection.asme.org
