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Today we had a surprisingly enjoyable anatomy lab dissecting the anterior neck and paralingual space (area under the jaw). Some combination of our cadaver and our dissecting skill resulted in a beautiful display of muscles, blood vessels, glands and nerves (except that damn accessory nerve [shakes fist angrily at the anatomy gods]). We received many a compliment and actually learned quite a bit... mostly about triangles.
TIL: Teeth provide proprioception for the mandible (i.e. send the brain information about the location and movement of the jaw). When dentists numb your teeth while performing their acts of torture, they tell you not to eat for a few hours after. This is not because the dental work needs time to set, but rather because your numbed teeth are temporarily unable to let you know their location, so you risk biting your cheek or chomping down extra hard on your newly fixed smile. This also explains why people with complete dentures have a hard time biting and chewing smoothly; they no longer have accurate information about the movement and location of their jaws! Interestingly, keeping just one tooth would be enough to maintain this sense.
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