You might think of your teeth as tools, like built-in knives and forks. But if they are mere tools, why do teeth feel pain and wouldn´t it be better if they could just __26__ under any conditions? In spite of our __27__discomfort, it turns out there´s a good reason our teeth are so sensitive. Tooth pain is a __28__ mechanism that ensures when a tooth is being damaged. We´ ll notice and do something about it.

If you eat something too hot or too cold, or if the tooth is wom down enough where the tissue __29__ is exposed, all of those things cause pain, and then the pain causes the person not to use that tooth to try to protect it a little bit more. So it´s really a protective mechanism more than anything else. If teeth didn´t feel pain, we might __30__ to use them in situations that damage them. And for humans, damaging __31__ teeth is a problem because, unlike crocodiles, we can´t __32__ them.

Teeth have three layers, only one of which—the innermost layer of the tooth hurt, as thatlayer of the tooth __33__ both blood vessels and nerves. Pain is the only feeling to which the nerves in that layer respond. Whereas people with tooth sensitivity may complain, for example, of tooth pain __34__ by heat or cold, the nerves in the inner layer don´t sense temperature. Rather, they feel pain, which may be __35__ with, say, drinking something very cold.