Thomas Edison knew all about sound bites. Sound waves often travel through air. For Mr. Edison, they went through wood into his teeth, up his jaw, to his ears. Ludwig van Beethoven used the same trick. When he started losing his hearing, he listened to music by putting one end of a wooden stick on his piano. He clenched the other end with his teeth. 

Ears and jaw bones are connected by ligaments. This is why a jaw injury can damage your hearing. It’s also why inventions like tooth-based hearing aids exist. Some hearing aids clip onto molars. They receive vibrations from a microphone tucked behind the ear. The vibrations go to the wearer’s inner ear. The brain interprets them as sound. Scientists are also looking into using tooth implants as hearing aids.

Different shaped skulls hear sound differently. One person may hear certain music frequencies as loud while another hears them softer. If you can’t agree on how loud to crank music in the car on road trips, blame it on your skulls.

What if our eardrums become damaged? As long as sound vibrations can reach our ear bones, we can hear. This is why you can hear your voice even if you plug your ears.

God made animals to hear in creative ways too. Elephants pick up vibrations through their feet. They stomp the ground to send messages long distances. Moths avoid bats. They use antennae to hear bat chirps. No ears at all? No problem. Snakes hear vibrations from the ground through their jawbones.