- Enamel strength
- Bone strength
- Muscle & ligament strength
- Takeaway
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Your amazing, versatile, complicated body is tougher than it looks. Between your muscles, skin, cartilage, and bones, your vital organs are surrounded by a structural force field that doubles as an engineering marvel.
So what’s the hardest substance in your body? The answer might surprise you. In fact, the most durable and tough substance in your body is actually a tissue.
Encasing your teeth and helping you chew, bite, and tear your food is your tooth enamel. That’s the hardest substance in the human body.
Keep reading to learn more about enamel and other strong elements in your body.
Enamel is one of four types of tissue that make up your teeth. The other three types are:
Enamel is 96 percent densely packed minerals, which is more mineral than any other tissue your body creates. This makes enamel the perfect protector for your teeth, whether you’re gnashing on jerky or drinking a hot beverage.
You might have assumed that bones are the hardest substance in your body. And bones are incredibly tough, also earning a 5 on the Mohs Hardness Scale.
Bones are considered to be stronger than concrete. Fun fact: the jawbone and the femur are considered the strongest bones in your body.
Bone is made of living tissue. Collagen and a mineral called calcium phosphate make up most of your bone structure.
- Cortical bone tissue is dense, and it makes up the outer layers of your bones.
- Trabecular bone tissue is the spongy, honeycomb-like material that makes up your inner bones.
The unique composition of your bones is what makes them strong and resilient, but flexible enough to absorb some stress.
Muscles, ligaments, and tendons are also incredibly strong, although they aren’t made up of the hardest materials in your body.
Muscles
Muscles are made of thousands of highly flexible fibers.
Muscles help your bones to move, and also form the walls that surround your organs. Muscles fibers are bound together tightly in groups, which is what gives them their strength.
Ligaments
Ligaments are made of strong, connective collagen tissue.
These bands of tissue are used to hold your joints together and keep your muscles in place throughout different parts of your body. Ligaments are like ropes that keep your muscles from over-extending their reach.
Tendons
Tendons are also made of connective collagen fibers.
Tendons are what connect your muscles to your bones. Tendons are more flexible than ligaments. They also contain fewer blood vessels than your muscles, which makes them more prone to injury.
Muscles, ligaments, and tendons are incredibly strong, and have varying degrees of elasticity. But they aren’t particularly hard, and would rank low on Mohs scale.
Your teeth contain the hardest substance in the human body — your enamel.
Bones aren’t quite as hard as enamel, but they rank closely on the hardness scale.
Other parts of your body (like muscles, ligaments, and tendons) are incredibly strong, but don’t come close to the mineral-based tissue in your teeth and bones.
Last medically reviewed on September 22, 2020
Hello everybody! Today, you will learn what parts of your body are strongest for striking, and how they can be applied. To do this, we will start at the top of our body, and work our way down to the bottom, carefully detailing each body part’s strength. This series will be done in two parts. This week, we will learn about the upper half of your body, and next week we will learn about the lower half.
Starting at the top, we have the head. We know the head is the heaviest part of your body, so it makes sense that your head can pack some strength. A head butt should be used when your hands and legs are occupied, such as when you’re being pulled into a car by the wrists. When using a head butt, you should aim for softer body parts to avoid concussion, such as an attacker’s nose instead of an attacker’s forehead.
Moving on to the arms, we have the elbow, one of the best body weapons you have. A hard elbow jab to the ribs or stomach can easily wind someone and loosen the grip of a chokehold/grab from behind, creating a window of opportunity to get out and run away.
Next, we have the classic fist. A punch should be aimed at soft tissue areas such as the throat to minimize damage to the fists.
The edge of your hand is another body part that should be used in striking the throat, as it can quickly and efficiently disable your attacker, not only getting them off you, but giving you time to run away.
A palm strike to the nose is always a solid option, as it does minimal damage to you and can stun your attacker, but other attacks such as the edge-of-hand throat jab can be more effective.
Finally, we have the fingertips/nails, which are extremely effective in gouging and ripping other soft tissue areas such as the eyes, throat, and groin.
Thank you for reading this description on the strongest parts of your body to strike with, and I hope you learned something.
Tooth enamel is like a shield around teeth that helps protect them from tooth decay and cavities. But, that shield is under attack every day, leaving your teeth vulnerable to unhealthy bacteria. Here’s what you need to know about tooth enamel, and how you can keep your family’s tooth enamel strong.
Tooth enamel is the first line of defense your teeth have against plaque and cavities. It is the white, visible part of the tooth and it is also the hardest part of the human body. When enamel is damaged, it can appear discolored and leave the affected teeth very sensitive.
Tooth enamel protects teeth from decay and cavities. When it is damaged or destroyed, teeth and gums are more susceptible to oral health issues more serious disease.
Acid is the primary agent that destroys tooth enamel, and most of the damage is done by the foods and drinks that you consume. Soft drinks are the most frequent source of erosive acids, due to their high acidity and frequency of consumption. Other drinks like fruit juice, sports drinks and energy drinks can also damage your teeth through acidic erosion. Acidic fruits like oranges and grapefruit, and sticky carbohydrates like bread and crackers can also eat away at tooth enamel.
Calcium is a dental super mineral. That’s because it neutralizes damaging acids and is a great enamel protector. Try to add at least one dairy product to your meals to get the adequate amount of calcium. If your family does not consume dairy, try introducing some of these other calcium-rich foods: almond milk, canned fish, kale, soy yogurt or soybeans.
Water is not acidic, and does not harm tooth enamel. It also improves saliva production, which naturally cleans teeth of debris and restores the mouth back to a healthy ph balance. Try giving your family more water instead of sugary drinks to help keep their tooth enamel strong and healthy.
Food debris left on teeth encourages bacteria growth that eats away at enamel and causes cavities. This is why it’s important to brush twice per day, for two minutes at a time, and floss once per day to clean debris from the hard-to-reach areas of teeth.
Unfortunately, cavities are the most common disease afflicting children in the United States, and almost completely preventable. You can help prevent cavities in your children by keeping their tooth enamel clean and strong.
Visit our office so that we can evaluate your child’s overall oral health. We check and document the state of your child’s tooth enamel as a part of our regular checkups, and we will help give you and your child the knowledge necessary to keep a healthy, lifelong smile.
Tags: Acid Erosion, Oral Health, Tooth Enamel