Tag: Oral habits

Rodents, defined by their ability to gnaw, use continuously growing incisors to chew and wear down tough materials. This biological necessity offers a powerful starting point for understanding a more general question: what does gnawing food mean?

While ice consists only of frozen water, a 2023 review in the National Institutes of Health journal found that compulsively chewing it, a condition known as pagophagia, is closely intertwined with iron deficiency anemia. Far from being a healthy habit, chewing ice can be a sign of an underlying medical problem with significant dental consequences.