Can zombie really kill with teeths?

[gennyshark]

No, I do not think. If zombies's mouth and theeths are human yet, this is impossible in the reality. The human theets and mouths structure is unable to kill.

[MorningLightMountain]

Well it's a work of fiction and not reality.

[mousebites]

Humans have difficulty tearing someone apart with our teeth because our mind doesn't let us. It sounds weird, but it's true. If we were able to use our jaws to their full extent, we would be able to crush our own teeth. Our brain tells us not to bite too hard so we don't injure our teeth. Zombies don't have this restraint. They don't feel pain.

[gennyshark]

I dont think. Often humans behave as beasts, as we can read in crime news. But I never have read of murders using teeths or mouth. Moreover I think that human teeths are technically and physically unable to kill: the face's structure is different, for example, from these of feline or any carnivorous beast. And the felines kill for suffucation, attacking victim's throat. I think that if zombie's teeths not have some evolution or modification is unrealistic they can sever human flesh. They can kill as any normal human murder, for example with knifes, or with their overnumber, but not with their bites, as we see in TWD. Perhaps we must ask to some doctor. (Excuse my English)

[Gustavos Makreles Jamperes]

i think you can kill someone with your teeth and mouth cause with our own force we can bite off a finger from us

[MorningLightMountain]

Originally posted by ErayxGamer™:

i think you can kill someone with your teeth and mouth cause with our own force we can bite off a finger from us

You could easily do so by biting into an artery in the neck.

[Dk. Jekyll]

Originally posted by MorningLightMountain:

You could easily do so by biting into an artery in the neck.

Speaking of which, Rick has already done that twice in the comics and once on TV.

But, with that being said, humans have largely herbivorous mouthes and teeth, and having them turn into mindless carnivores ain't realistic at all, unless the pathogen brings along some serious genetic alterations.

Think about the pacu, a South American fish with a similar mouth. It normally feeds on hard-shelled nuts, but when brought outside of its native habitat, like Papua New Guinea, it turns into a zombie-like omnivore, devouring anything it comes across, incl. human testicles. So when the walkers took over the world, they might've developed stronger jaws due to the infection.

[Professor 66]

Yes it is possible.

Here in an interview with a military dentist talking on the subject you are all speaking of.

We see zombies chomping down on humans fairly easily, but are our jaws able to do that?

If you watch The Walking Dead, you see them literally ripping apart muscle and bone, but let’s talk about life for a second. In your jaw, you have enough power in your muscles to crack nuts. There are people that chew on ice or literally chew on nails because they have so much power in their bite. And the enamel on your teeth is the hardest bone in your body. Teeth are actually harder than bone.

Would it take a long time to tear into and rip off a hunk of flesh from a healthy human trying to get away?

Not really. If you bit my arm right now, you could probably take a big chunk out of it before I could stop you. Like you mentioned [before the interview began] Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear. That’s cartilage but what’s on the arm? It’s just really flesh and muscle. You could bite a big chunk. And the neck is really just soft tissue and not much different from the ear. You could bite the neck, rip out the artery and it wouldn’t be too difficult.

Then what separates a human’s ability to bite from a theoretical zombie?

In life, people have nerves, they feel pain. The teeth sit in the jaw bone in this periodontal ligament that acts as a suction cup. That keeps the tooth anchored in the bone, and it has nerve fibers. Those nerve fibers send impulses to the brain and tells the brain how much force the teeth can use without having pain. When it starts to develop pain, it starts to back off. Then we don’t chew as hard or we get a twinge of sensitivity. A zombie doesn’t have any pain receptors; they don’t feel pain. They don’t have nerves, they don’t have feeling anymore. So they can go ahead and bite with an incredible amount of force and pull that flesh off the bone without any sensation of pain. They actually have a much stronger bite force than what a live human being does.

So they are just going to keep biting despite whatever damage they might be doing to their bodies, because that pain isn’t stopping them?

Right. They’ll break their jaw in half trying to chew off the flesh. You’ll see zombies where part of their jaws might be hanging out; maybe that zombie bit off more than he could literally chew. But as is, even a normal human bite could be devastating. Like I said, you could bite my arm now and tear off a big chunk of flesh without causing too much pain to yourself.

But these are dead creatures. Wouldn’t there be decay in a zombie’s teeth?

What’s the last thing to go? The flesh rots off but you go back, dig up a mummy or fossils and find teeth. Dinosaurs have been in the earth millions and millions of years, but the bones and teeth are still there. The last thing to decay on a human is bone. But bacteria is still around. They’re not brushing their teeth! Teeth will break apart in time, and The Walking Dead shows zombies with broken teeth. But in general, a zombie’s teeth could be healthy. There are people who don’t brush their teeth but they don’t get decay. When I was in dental and medical school, we had human skulls in our hands that had a full set of 32 teeth, undecayed.

[gennyshark]

Originally posted by Gaming Raz:

Yes it is possible.

Here in an interview with a military dentist talking on the subject you are all speaking of.

We see zombies chomping down on humans fairly easily, but are our jaws able to do that?

If you watch The Walking Dead, you see them literally ripping apart muscle and bone, but let’s talk about life for a second. In your jaw, you have enough power in your muscles to crack nuts. There are people that chew on ice or literally chew on nails because they have so much power in their bite. And the enamel on your teeth is the hardest bone in your body. Teeth are actually harder than bone.

Would it take a long time to tear into and rip off a hunk of flesh from a healthy human trying to get away?

Not really. If you bit my arm right now, you could probably take a big chunk out of it before I could stop you. Like you mentioned [before the interview began] Mike Tyson bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear. That’s cartilage but what’s on the arm? It’s just really flesh and muscle. You could bite a big chunk. And the neck is really just soft tissue and not much different from the ear. You could bite the neck, rip out the artery and it wouldn’t be too difficult.

Then what separates a human’s ability to bite from a theoretical zombie?

In life, people have nerves, they feel pain. The teeth sit in the jaw bone in this periodontal ligament that acts as a suction cup. That keeps the tooth anchored in the bone, and it has nerve fibers. Those nerve fibers send impulses to the brain and tells the brain how much force the teeth can use without having pain. When it starts to develop pain, it starts to back off. Then we don’t chew as hard or we get a twinge of sensitivity. A zombie doesn’t have any pain receptors; they don’t feel pain. They don’t have nerves, they don’t have feeling anymore. So they can go ahead and bite with an incredible amount of force and pull that flesh off the bone without any sensation of pain. They actually have a much stronger bite force than what a live human being does.

So they are just going to keep biting despite whatever damage they might be doing to their bodies, because that pain isn’t stopping them?

Right. They’ll break their jaw in half trying to chew off the flesh. You’ll see zombies where part of their jaws might be hanging out; maybe that zombie bit off more than he could literally chew. But as is, even a normal human bite could be devastating. Like I said, you could bite my arm now and tear off a big chunk of flesh without causing too much pain to yourself.

But these are dead creatures. Wouldn’t there be decay in a zombie’s teeth?

What’s the last thing to go? The flesh rots off but you go back, dig up a mummy or fossils and find teeth. Dinosaurs have been in the earth millions and millions of years, but the bones and teeth are still there. The last thing to decay on a human is bone. But bacteria is still around. They’re not brushing their teeth! Teeth will break apart in time, and The Walking Dead shows zombies with broken teeth. But in general, a zombie’s teeth could be healthy. There are people who don’t brush their teeth but they don’t get decay. When I was in dental and medical school, we had human skulls in our hands that had a full set of 32 teeth, undecayed.

Thanks. Very interesting and exhaustive

[ferdinando.mon]

hi to all

[thorbaldin]

i m not a zombie but i could surely kill someone with teeth hopefully i won't try

[IndomFluffy]

For me it's possible cuz: Zombie's teeths are full of ,,poison'' in their blood & mouth. Something like KomodoDragon? xD But imagine, it's similar. So for me it's possible.

[akurathedragonblader]

Not really "poison" but disease - in both walkers and komodos. I've not read the comics or seen the TV show, but here it seems like bites accelerate the process that turns people into walkers. How, I'm not sure. But when Lee Everett gets bitten, it's an incredibly small bite, but is still fatal. That said, nobody seems to try and clean a walker bite, probably on the assumption they're already a goner.

As for walkers being able to rip apart people with their teeth, remember that walkers don't seem to feel pain, and able to function even after taking any kind of injury except to the brain. That gives them a lot more destructive capacity. It's actually possible for a human to pull something so hard to seperate their own muscle from their bone, but pain(and common sense) generally stops that.

[Hyperactivy]

What kills humans when a zombie bites them is either the spite or something inside the zombies teeth it infects the human since the bite is like a dogs bite it gets through your skin. Thats why when a zombie bites you in TWD you would die. Unless you cut the part that was bitten ASAP.