As the saying goes, "Toothache is not a disease, it hurts and kills people." "I believe that everyone has been more or less tortured by dental disease, but in our impression, animals that do not talk about oral hygiene seem to never have dental disease. Are human teeth more fragile, or do animals have their own set of dental tips?
Although human teeth have certain differences in structure from animals, this does not mean that animals will not suffer from dental disease, but compared with the delicate operations of human teeth filling and tooth washing, animals often have a more arrogant way of handling.
For example, sharks, in their vicious mouths, in addition to the row of sharp teeth that are erected, may also have several rows of upside down, or even dozens of rows of teeth, whenever the front teeth fall out or are damaged, the second row of teeth will automatically rise. Scientists have observed that sharks have to change their teeth almost once a week, and the service life of teeth is so short, what dental disease are sharks afraid of?
For example, rodents such as rabbits and squirrels, people who have raised such pets should know that the teeth of rabbits and squirrels can grow for life, and what bothers them will not be caries, but only teeth that are too long to eat, because the damaged part has long been worn out by them, and the rest are healthy white teeth.
In addition, the unique tooth structure and feeding style of herbivores and carnivores also determine that they rarely get dental disease.
Herbivores eat mostly high-fiber plants, these plants are not only extremely hard, but also able to clean tartar, the process of eating itself is like brushing teeth, even if there are food debris left between the teeth, it is difficult to be decomposed by bacteria, so it is naturally not easy to get dental disease.
In addition, ruminants such as cattle and sheep often chew food stored in the stomach, and those foods are digested by the stomach, and the burden on the teeth is also very small, and because of this, the teeth of such animals are generally better.
Although the teeth of carnivores are very sharp, such as tigers, cheetahs, etc., they usually bite the meat block tissue in a large mouth, and rarely chew carefully, so the remaining food residue content in the mouth is also very low, and it is naturally not easy to get dental disease in the case that bacteria are not "cold" to raw meat.
In addition to food debris left in the mouth, the reason why humans get dental disease is mostly because they consume too much sugar. Animals do not have this problem, whether they eat grass or meat, they can not eat a lot of sugary food, so the possibility of caries is very low. Although animals such as orangutans will eat sugary foods such as bananas, at the same time, they will also eat other rough and fiber-rich foods, which is conducive to tooth cleaning, so the overall oral condition is still relatively healthy.
If we, like animals, eat foods with high protein content and low sugar content every day, and stay away from high-acid and high-sugar substances, then our probability of developing tooth decay will be much lower. Similarly, if animals are fed foods that are high in sugar or acid that humans normally eat, it won't be long before they become plagued by tooth decay.
Regarding this conclusion, the situation of people's pet cats and dogs is the best proof. Generally speaking, if the owner feeds the pet some softer, higher sugar food, it is easy for cats, dogs and dogs to suffer from tooth decay, and the wild cats and wild dogs that wander in the rural field rarely suffer from dental disease. Comparing the two, it is not difficult to find that the probability of human and animals suffering from tooth decay is different, seemingly because of the gap in our teeth, but in fact it is because our eating conditions are different.
Of course, while paying attention to the factor of eating conditions, we should not ignore species differences. Humans who can only have two pairs of teeth in their lifetime, and can only have a maximum of 32 precipitated teeth, are indeed very disadvantageous when compared with many animals. Sharks, for example, change their teeth once a week, and at least have hundreds of sets of teeth in their lifetime; for example, snails, although they look unassuming, actually have thousands of teeth in their mouths, and humans are naturally incomparable with them.
Having said that, we don't have to be presumptuous, although humans only have two pairs of teeth, but there are also animals in nature that are worse than humans, such as beluga whales, often only one pair of teeth in their lives, and there is no bad use.
Moreover, whether it is a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore, there are actually cases of dental disease. When we go to the zoo, we often see some cheetahs, lions are depressed, maybe their teeth are broken, and it is not uncommon for tigers and elephants to be pulled out of their teeth in the zoo. A large part of the reason why we have the cognition that animals will not suffer from tooth decay is because we have difficulty accessing these animals, and narrow cognition naturally forms prejudices.
The same applies to nature, where cattle and sheep that eat a lot of hard food and fiber, as well as tigers and leopards that nibble on large chunks of meat, don't suffer from dental disease? The answer, of course, is no, but animals suffering from dental disease are more difficult to survive in nature, and nature is more difficult to observe, and in the long run, we naturally assume that animals are not prone to tooth decay.
So, if you or someone around you gets tooth decay again, don't "hate the injustice" anymore, if you don't pay attention to oral hygiene, don't regularly do oral maintenance, and develop good habits, no matter what animal has to endure the pain of dental disease. Here, I also advise everyone to do a good job in dental care, and never wait for the toothache to rise and then regret it.