Learn About Teeth and the Skeletal System

The human body is a marvelous and complex system that is made up of cells, tissues, bones, organs, and an outer layer of skin that protects it all and makes sure everything stays where it needs to. Your body provides you with the energy you need to do things by converting the food you eat into stores of energy. Your brain is responsible for understanding what people say to you, understanding what you’re seeing, and solving problems like getting a cookie jar from a shelf that’s hard to reach. And your muscles let you use your strength to crack a twig or open a heavy door. Your body is made of more than 37 trillion cells, and each of them work together to let you do what you want to do, like running, sitting, skipping, or reading.

Human Body Basics

Because the body is so complex, we’re actually still learning about it. To make all of this knowledge more manageable, we’ve divided the body into a few systems to help us keep track of what goes where and what it all does.

Your circulatory system’s main job is to shuttle nutrients all around your body, carrying things like oxygen and sugar in your blood. It has a huge network of tiny tubes below your skin that send blood around your body to provide your organs and muscles with what they need to work properly. With every pump of your heart, oxygen-rich blood is pushed through your body to muscles and organs.

Ever wondered how your body turns food into energy for you to walk, run, and stay energized throughout the day? Your digestive system is what lets you do all of these things by breaking down the food you eat into smaller and smaller pieces until your body can absorb what it needs. The process of digestion begins when you put food or drinks into your mouth and ends when it is turned into waste to be flushed down the toilet. It’s full of twists and turns and covers a distance of 9 meters inside your body! That’s almost 30 feet of tubes that deal with whatever you put in your mouth. When you swallow food, it goes down into your stomach to be broken down more, and then it goes into your small intestine, which extracts the nutrients and minerals from your food. After that comes your large intestine, which absorbs water and filters out the things your body doesn’t need from the food you ate. After this, your large intestine sends the waste down to the rectum to be expelled.

Your muscles are what let you walk, stand, run, and even smile. Everything you do with your body is possible only because your muscles are strong enough to move how you need them to. Your muscles work together with your bones to give you support and to maintain your posture. Without your neck muscles to hold your head up, you wouldn’t be able to even look at things that interest you. By eating well and playing hard, you can make your muscles bigger and stronger, so remember to take care of them!

When you breathe in, you take in the oxygen your body needs to keep functioning. And when you breathe out, carbon dioxide that your body doesn’t need is pushed out. Your respiratory system is responsible for this exchange of gases. Your nose takes in air and filters out pollutants and dust, and your lungs filter out the oxygen from this air to pass it on to your circulatory system to distribute to the organs and tissues that need oxygen. When your blood returns to your heart after distributing oxygen throughout your body, your lungs then filter out the carbon dioxide from it for you to breathe out. With every breath you take, your respiratory system and circulatory systems work together to distribute oxygen-rich blood to your whole body.

• Your Cardiovascular System
• Human Circulatory System
• The Circulatory System and its Functions
• The Circulatory System
• The Digestive System and How it Works
• The Structure and Function of the Digestive System
• Journey Through the Digestive System
• Follow Your Food
• Muscular System
• Your Muscles
• All About Your Muscles
• Muscle Facts
• Respiratory System
• The Respiratory System
• How Does the Respiratory System Work?
• What You Never Knew About Breathing

The Skeletal System

When babies are born, they have 270 bones in their bodies, and as we grow up, some of our bones combine to make longer bones for our adult bodies. By the time we’re all grown up, we only have 206 bones. The skeleton is incredibly important for our survival, and we depend on it for a lot of things. The skeleton is responsible for supporting and maintaining the shapes of our bodies, and it protects our organs, too. Without your ribcage protecting your lungs and heart, it would be impossible to breathe, and without our skulls, our brains could be easily injured. Our skeleton is also responsible for producing blood cells, one of its most important functions. It produces as many as a trillion cells every day!

• Your Bones
• Human Skeletal System

Teeth and Bones

Our skeletal system runs throughout our entire bodies, from our skulls to the bones in our feet. Because it’s covered by skin and muscle, we don’t get to see the bones in our skeleton, but there’s an important exception: our teeth! Our teeth have to be strong enough to bite the food we put into our mouths. When we eat food that’s hard or chewy, like celery or steak, we have to use our teeth to bite and chew, and because they’re made of the same stuff that makes our bones, they’re perfect for the job!

When we’re born, we only have about 20 teeth, but after our baby teeth fall out to make room for adult teeth, we end up with 32. There are four main types of teeth: incisors, canines, molars, and premolars. Incisors are at the front of our mouths and are used for cutting our food. The canines are the sharp teeth around our incisors, and their shape helps us hold our food to tear it apart for easier digestion. The molars and premolars are the teeth at the sides and back of our mouths, and they are used for crushing and breaking down food in preparation for swallowing it.

It is important to take good care of your teeth by brushing them at least twice a day. Without brushing, food particles can get stuck between your teeth and make them decay. Tooth decay means your teeth are starting to rot, turning your teeth anywhere from a deep yellow to a black color. Not cleaning your mouth regularly can also lead to bad breath.

• My Teeth
• Learn About the Teeth
• How to Brush Your Teeth
• Woodstock dentists
• cosmetic dentists in Woodstock GA
• Woodstock pediatric dentistry

Anatomy Activities

• The Skeleton
• Build-a-Body Game
• Lesson Plan: Ultimate Guide to the Human Body
• Interactive Skeletal System