For those that are following the Soccer World Cup, one of the biggest stories has been Uruguay’s Luis Suarez and his habit of biting opposing players on the field. Here at the dental office, we highly discourage biting anything other than food, of course, and especially not other people! But this incident did make us curious to look at other instances where bites have caused a stir.
Perhaps the biggest of all bites came from Mike Tyson during a boxing match against Evander Holyfield in a championship in which Tyson bit both of Holyfield’s ears. Tyson bit part of Holyfield’s right ear off and spit it onto the floor, then later bit his left ear. Tyson was fined 3 million dollars – that’s an expensive bite! Another famous bite happened in a 1983 NBA playoff game, during which Tree Rollins bit Danny Ainge so hard on the finger that it required stitches. In another incident in an NHL game, Alex Burrows of Vancouver allegedly bit the finger of Boston’s Patrice Bergeron while scuffling.
So what kind of damage can a human bite cause? Biting other people can actually cause a good deal of damage, because the average human bite contains approximately 100 pounds of force and can be even greater, limited only by the strength of an individual’s teeth. So instead of biting a person, bite into a big juicy piece of fruit!
