Fun Facts About Teeth

The first set of teeth (baby teeth) has 20 teeth.

The second set of teeth (adult teeth) has 32 teeth.

Baby teeth start to form when the baby is still in the womb, but don’t begin to erupt until a child is between 6-12 months old.

Teeth are the only part of the human body that can’t repair itself. They are coated in enamel, which is not a living tissue.

Tooth enamel is the hardest part of the entire body; even harder than bone.

The average person spends 38 days brushing their teeth during their lifetime.

One third of your teeth are underneath your gums.

Humans only get 2 sets of teeth in their lifetime, whereas some animals like dolphins only get one (monophyodont), and others grow multiple sets (polyphyodont); sharks grow around 40.

Human teeth do not keep growing once the second permanent set have fully erupted, but some animals such as rabbits and horses’ teeth grow continually and have to be worn or filed down.

Humans have at most 32 teeth, but many animals have more than we do. A horse can have up to 44, a dolphin up to 250 and a common garden snail can have thousands.

‘Long in the tooth’ (meaning ‘old’) was originally used to describe horses. As horses age their gums recede, which gives the impression that their teeth are growing. The longer the teeth look, the older the horse is.

Your mouth can produce up to 730 litres of saliva per year.

Modern toothpaste has only been available for around the past hundred years. Before what we call toothpaste was invented, humans used all kind of mixtures such as crushed oyster shells, ground chalk, charcoal, pulverised brick, lemon juice and salt.

No two people have the same set of teeth; they are as unique as your fingerprint.

No two people have the same tongue print either.

Some babies are born with teeth. About 1 in every 2000 babies are born with ‘natal’ teeth. Natal teeth usually erupt on the bottom gums and tend to have weak roots; they are often removed to prevent problems with breastfeeding.

The longest human tooth officially documented was in Singapore and was extracted in 2009. It measured 3.2cm long.