BAGGINSHIELD DENTIST HI!!! Patrick I have a dentist question for you- it’s not an actually important question so I’m bothering you with it instead of looking it up like a normal person.
What are the ridges at on the roof of our mouths for? The ones right behind your top teeth.
Okay! Nice! Dentistry ask!
So those are your palatal rugae, on a part of your mouth called the hard palate. It's made of two bones that are part of your facial skeleton and hard keratin-like tissue (the same stuff that makes up your gums). The ridges are used to help move food down your mouth, hold said food, and also they aid in speech. I'm not quite sure... how? I didn't design how the body works.
But I can assume that they're there to help grip food between the roof of your mouth and tooth tongue, so that food doesn't just slide down and choke you. Kinda gross visual but ok.
Another gross visual: sometimes your hard palate malfunctions and grows a tooth. A good friend of mine had to have two taken out from that roof of his mouth when he was a kid, and for it being uncommon I've dealt with having to pull people's malfunction teeth a few times. This is called hyperdontia.
Some fun facts at least, your rugae are unique to you, in the same way fingerprints are. I can imagine they're not as commonly used in forensics because of the lack of traces of your... palatal rugae leaves...
However, there's also something called (I had to look up the name) torus palatinus, and that is basically a firm sometimes painful growth down the midline of the hard palate. Harmless, but sometimes an issue for speech and dental appliances. It's genetic and Healthline says that 20%-30% of the population has it, most frequently in woman and those of Asian descent. So if you've had unsourced speech problems or difficulty eating or a strange protruding elongated lump down the roof of your mouth that isn't one of these ridges, torus palatinus might be worth looking into.
K bye keep sending asks I like talking about my job love you Wyrm
