Have you ever thought about the different roles played by different types of teeth?

Yes, and when you learn about the teeth of different animals, that applies to them, as well. Animals that eat greens like cows and horses have different teeth than animals who tear their food, like wolves and cats.

Yes, especially now that I am going through some really unpleasant dental issues.

I like your definition of cooperative dentition. Everybody doing their job as designed.
Explains my lack of wisdom.

I like how it reveals what humans have evolved to eat, despite what many talking heads would have us believe.

Go team go! (And what’s your problem, lower left molars??)

I can’t say it’s something I think about often, but yes, I learned about this mostly in the context of other animal species, particularly carnivores vs. omnivores vs. herbivores. Nature is amazing, isn’t it?

Only when I learned about it in school.

I was always pretty aware of what the different teeth did, but then got a greater understanding after I had a few cavities the past 10 years or so. One was not a molar, so the dentist could easily pull it (I wasn’t paying for a root canal, and it wasn’t that visible.) But then my last cavity was a molar, and the dentist explained why they are not good to pull: much deeper roots, etc. Fortunately, I got in to see him quickly, and he was able to put a filling in it.

Of course I did and do with each and every bite.
“no, no, no carrot, not there!

I know very well. I’ve had to have some important teeth pulled.

@jonsblond i hope you got them replaced, otherwise the other teeth are going to move around.

@jca2 sometimes, and particularly in my case, that isn’t a bad thing. My teeth have always been very tight in my mouth and when I was growing up, my parents didn’t have a lot of money so my sister got braces because her teeth were in the worst shape. And then after I started working I didn’t have a lot of money either and none of my jobs had good dental insurance so I just had never had anything done. So when I had to have one of my side teeth pulled, it actually gave me some relief from that and now the gap between teeth is actually smaller because the teeth that were behind it are moving forward slowly. Same thing when I got my one and only wisdom tooth pulled. I feel like I have more room up in the top of my mouth on that side now.