Chew on this: Why astronauts need good teeth in space

NASA

This picture from a NASA space convey goal shows a International Space Station in orbit. The space hire is a distance of a football margin and home to 6 astronauts. The picture was taken on Feb. 10, 2010.

By Miriam Kramer
Space.com

Brushing your teeth is not only a daily duty for people on Earth. Good teeth are critical for astronauts in space, though not for reasons we competence think.

In new video about astronauts and their teeth, a European Space Agency took a streets to find out what people opposite Europe suspicion are a reasons spaceflyers need to keep their pearly whites in good shape.

While ESA officials suggested a startling answer to space dental health in a video’s end, some open answers ranged from a essential to undisguised odd.

“I consider in space a resources are opposite and that your skeleton remove calcium, and afterwards your teeth turn bad some-more quickly,” responded one Dutch-speaking interviewee.

Astronauts do lose bone firmness while vital in space, though that isn’t a reason they need to take caring of their teeth. Other interviewees came adult with some-more artistic reasons for wanderer dental care.

“Because it is weightlessness, there is no traction between a food and a teeth,” pronounced a chairman interviewed in Brussels, Belgium. “So we consider it is really hard, really formidable to make a food eatable in a stomach.”

Another respondent suspicion speed competence be a factor.

“Because of a speed we are roving with? we don’t know,” pronounced one interviewee in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Though he seemed unsure, a Dutch respondent indeed wasn’t distant off from a genuine answer. Astronauts are compulsory to have good teeth since of a impassioned conditions combined by launch and landing, ESA officials said. [Quiz: The Reality of Life in Space]

“In fact, astronauts need good teeth since a acceleration army and vibrations during a moody into space can be really strong,” an ESA anecdotist says in a video. “During a launch phase, an wanderer has to continue a force of adult to 4 times their possess physique weight. Ill-fitting dental fillings could turn lax or tumble out, and a windy vigour change might be unpleasant when cavities are present.”

Good dental hygiene does not stop on a ground. Spaceflyers need to continue holding caring of their teeth while vital on house a orbiting laboratory in credentials for their lapse to a aspect of a Earth.

When space hire residents are finished with their time in circuit and lapse home, it’s also a aroused trip. The Russian Soyuz plug obliged for holding spaceflyers to and from a $100 billion laboratory is still speeding during about 6.2 miles per hour (10 km/h) when it touches down.

So if we have hopes to be an astronaut, don’t forget to brush your teeth any day. It’s a good use either we live on Earth or not.

Email Miriam Kramer or follow her @mirikramer . Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. This essay was initial published on Space.com.

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