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Chewing on aluminum foil can lead to a sharp, uncomfortable sensation.
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- Chewing aluminum foil can hurt because it forms a voltaic cell in your mouth. This occurs when the foil interacts with metal from dental restorations in a salty, wet environment like saliva.
- This interaction produces an electric current that travels to the tooth's root, activating nerves and causing discomfort, particularly for those with fillings, crowns, or other metallic dental procedures.
- The voltaic effect does not happen in mouths lacking metal dental work.
Biting aluminum foil can be painful, especially if you have metal dental work like fillings or crowns. When you bite down on foil, it creates a small battery in your mouth, and the resulting electrical current stimulates the nerves in your tooth. Here's how it works:
- Biting force causes two different metals (aluminum foil and mercury in fillings or gold in crowns) to come into contact within a wet, salty environment (saliva).
- These metals have an electrochemical potential difference, creating a voltage between them.
- Electrons move from the foil into the tooth, generating an electrical current.
- The current is conducted into the tooth's root, typically through the filling or crown.
- This current triggers a nerve impulse in the root's nerve.
- The nerve impulse travels to the brain.
- The brain perceives this impulse as pain.
The generation of electric current between two contacting metals is known as the voltaic effect, named after Alessandro Volta, its discoverer. Early batteries were constructed by stacking metal discs into a structure called a voltaic pile.
If your mouth contains no metal dental work, you won't experience this effect.
