If a quarter of your liver is lost through accident or if such a portion is surgically removed, it will amazingly grow back. This four-pound miracle machine filters more than two pints of blood per minute, screening and eliminating impurities from the system. But like the liver, the chewing apparatus is an embattled organ, constantly under attack by a variety of damaging agents, as a result of our constant abuse. Yet the teeth and related structures struggle faithfully and persistently to maintain equilibrium by demonstrating their remarkable qualities of defence.

Thirty-five days after the sperm fertilises the egg, the teeth begin to form. At this point in the development of the embryo which is only three quarters of an inch long , not even the eyes nor the sex organs have been formed. It is even widely believed that this fact alone is enough to convince anyone of how much priority nature places on the teeth.

During the time the child is between six and thirty months old, ten primary teeth appear from each jaw. At first a tough fibrous sheet protects each young tooth. Then the enamel develops to a hardness of nearly one third that of steel. To further prevent destruction, it has the natural ability to increase its resistance against chemical attack by fluoride. But despite all these valiant defence mechanisms, many parents and guardians continue to waste the prevailing good fortune by not doing enough to prevent tooth decay from occurring in these hapless children.

The consequence of not caring the so-called baby teeth usually reflects negatively in the permanent teeth which erupt within six to twenty years. Deformed crowns, crowding (malocclusion) and retained teeth are only a few of the negative effects. Healthy teeth can withstand over twenty thousands pounds per square inch of pressure while in use. The eight groups of ligament fibres which hold a tooth in its socket, can cushion tremendous force without eliciting pain.
As teeth wear down with age they grow out to compensate for this loss in length. The pulps become smaller and produce differentiated fibres making toothache increasingly less likely as the person becomes older. In addition, if the person develops a carie, the surrounding dentin attempts to isolate that decayed the decayed patch from the rest of the tooth in an effort to prevent pain and suffering. Nature provides secondary dentin which is nerveless and therefore incapable of sensitivity or pain.
Perhaps if we should be in a position to closely accompany the process of aggression and defence that takes place constantly in almost every part of our body, we may be more sympathetic towards care and prevention. Whether it is God or evolution that is accountable for such an extraordinary machine we call the human body, that question is not as important as its innate perfect design. There is in place the protection devices and the perpetual tendency to re-establish a healthy state even after disease.

If only we could see how each cell, tissue and organ struggle to overcome the effects of our blunders, complacency, betrayal and cruelty due to carelessness. Always, when some clinical symptom emerges, it means that our teeth has the fight against the enemy. Who is the enemy? We are. Every time we neglect to implement proper oral care we automatically become an enemy to the well-being of our dental health.

It is widely accepted that every Christian sorrowfully abhors the thought that Jesus in his plenitude and benevolence was crucified. If indeed there should be anything at all that he or she could do now to revoke that occurrence, certainly it would be done. But it is too late. In the same sense, we should not allow deterioration of any part of our body now, only to be aggrieved later when it is too late. So start by truly loving yourself today.