The pulp is at the centre of the tooth and consists of soft tissue containing blood vessels and nerves. The blood vessels and nerves enter the tooth from a hole at the bottom of the tooth's root. The main function of the pulp is to create dentine and supply dentine when it is lost. It also provides nutrients to the tooth (through the blood vessels) and gives you the ability to feel different temperatures and pressures to the tooth (through the nerves). With severe tooth decay the pulp can be permanently lost. Click here to read more about tooth decay..

Teeth are mainly used for tearing and chewing food. Imagine if you did not have any teeth. It would be quite hard to eat a lot of different foods! As you may have experienced, toothache can also make it difficult to eat different foods. This would not only mean you could miss out on food you really like, but also that it would be more difficult to eat a variety of food with the variety of nutrients you need for general health and wellbeing.

Teeth are also important for talking, and to give you a nice bright smile, both of which you probably know are also important for general health and wellbeing. 
 

Baby teeth and adult teeth

We have two sets of teeth during our lifetime, first baby (primary) teeth, then adult (permanent) teeth.

               
   BABY TEETH                       ADULT TEETH

As you can see from the pictures above, we have 20 baby teeth and 32 adult teeth. Baby teeth usually start coming through around eight months of age and the first adult teeth at around six years of age. From six years of age until eleven or twelve, all the baby teeth will be lost to give way for adult teeth.