Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In human anatomy, the mouth is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food and produces saliva. [2] The oral mucosa is the mucous membrane epithelium lining the inside of the mouth. In addition to its primary role as the beginning of the digestive system, the mouth also plays a significant role in communication.
The human digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract plus the accessory organs of digestion (the tongue, salivary glands, pancreas, liver, and gallbladder). Digestion involves the breakdown of food into smaller and smaller components, until they can be absorbed and assimilated into the body.
The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract contains all the major organs of the digestive system, in humans and other animals, including the esophagus , stomach , and intestines .
Human teeth function to mechanically break down items of food by cutting and crushing them in preparation for swallowing and digesting. As such, they are considered part of the human digestive system. [1] Humans have four types of teeth: incisors, canines, premolars, and molars, which each have a specific function. The incisors cut the food ...
In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin mandibula, 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lower – and typically more mobile – component of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone is the skull's only movable, posable bone, sharing joints with the cranium's temporal bones.
The human tongue is divided into two parts, an oral part at the front and a pharyngeal part at the back. The left and right sides are also separated along most of its length by a vertical section of fibrous tissue (the lingual septum ) that results in a groove, the median sulcus, on the tongue's surface.
Eating food which does not require chewing, by choice or for medical reasons as tooth loss, is known as a soft diet. Such a diet may lead to inadequate nutrition due to a reduction in fruit and vegetable intake. [8] Chewing also stimulates the hippocampus and is necessary to maintain its normal function. [9]
In mammals, the jaws are made up of the mandible (lower jaw) and the maxilla (upper jaw). In the ape , there is a reinforcement to the lower jaw bone called the simian shelf . In the evolution of the mammalian jaw, two of the bones of the jaw structure (the articular bone of the lower jaw, and quadrate ) were reduced in size and incorporated ...