Did You Know?

Interesting Facts about Teeth and Dentistry

• The average person spends 38.5 total days brushing their teeth over a lifetime.
• People who drink 3 or more glasses of soda each day have 62% more tooth decay, fillings and tooth loss than others.
• Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the human body.
• If you don’t floss, you miss cleaning 40% of your tooth surfaces.
• If you’re right handed, you will chew your food on your right side. If you’re left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.
• Every year, kids in North America spend close to half a million dollars on chewing gum.
• More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones.
• Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.
• The average woman smiles 62 times a day. The average man smiles about 8 times a day.
• Kids laugh around 400 times a day, adults just 15 times a day.
• Giraffes only have bottom teeth.
• The average person only brushes for 45 to 70 seconds a day, the recommended amount of time is 2-3 minutes.
• 78% of Americans have had at least 1 cavity by age 17.
• 1882 was the year commercial floss was first manufactured.
• The most valuable tooth belonged to Sir Isaac Newton. In 1816 one of his teeth was sold in London for $3,633, or in today’s terms $35,700. The tooth was set in a ring! (source: Guinness World Records 2002).
• More than 300 types of bacteria make up dental plaque.
• Dogs have 42 teeth, cats have 30 teeth, pigs have 44 teeth, and an armadillo has 104 teeth.
• The elephant grinds its molars and grows new ones. This happens six times in a lifetime! An elephant’s molar is about 7 inches square and can weigh over 6 pounds.
• The Blue Whale is the largest mammal on earth, but it eats only tiny shrimp because it has no teeth.
• The Crocodile Bird flies into the open mouth of a crocodile and cleans the crocodile’s teeth!