Usually we’re pretty serious people here at Orion Dental. We want to help our patients maintain healthy smiles, banish cavities to the far corners of the universe and eliminate gum disease altogether! We do have a fun side, though, and occasionally we like to put our dentist tools down and enjoy the lighter side of dentistry. Here are five quirky dental themed factoids meant to amuse, bemuse and entertain!
Factoid 1: Did You Know Some Babies Are Born With Teeth?
It’s true! The term for this rare occurrence is ‘natal teeth’, and not to be confused with ‘neonatal teeth’ which are teeth that grow in shortly (within 30 days) after birth. Natal teeth are very rare, occurring on average once in 2,000 – 3,000 births. Natal teeth are not usually well formed and are only held in place by a soft piece of tissue and are usually removed from the infant’s mouth shortly after birth as not to cause irritation on the infant’s tongue during feeding.
Factoid 2: Can Tumours Grow Teeth?
Ok, this one is a wee bit gross, but interesting nonetheless! A teratoma is an encapsulated tumour with tissue or organ components that can resemble normal body parts, including hair, teeth, bone and even … jump to the next factoid if you’ve already got a case of the willies … eyes, hands and feet. Talk about a tumour with some bite!
Factoid 3: How Long Will You Brush Your Teeth During Your Life?
What if we told you the average person would spend the equivalent of 81 straight days brushing their teeth during their lifetime? Crazy, huh? Based on the average Canadian lifespan of 82.5 years and forgiving the first 2.5 years as a baby, and assuming that the average person brushes their teeth twice a day for two minutes each time, that calculates out to 81.1 days of teeth brushing over a lifetime. Go ahead, grab a calculator and check our math. Either way, that still a lot of brushing!
Factoid 4: Sharks Can Have Up To 20,000 Teeth During a Lifetime!
Woah! That’s a lot of teeth, a lot of flossing and with the bad reputation that sharks have (anyone remember Jaws?) we’re glad that both of our Milton and Scarborough locations are shark free zones! Great White Sharks have five to seven rows of between 22 and 26 teeth in each of the top and bottom jaws, giving them around 300 teeth in their mouth at any given time. Sharks are also always losing and breaking teeth (probably because of too much candy and poor brushing habits) so can grow upwards of 20,000 teeth during their lifespan.
By comparison, humans grow about 52 teeth during their lifetime: about 20 baby teeth that will fall out by time the child is 12 years old and 32 adult teeth that will last our entire adult life. The lesson? Sharks might not need to take care of their teeth but humans certainly do!
Factoid 5: What’s the Most Popular Toothbrush Colour?
Give yourself ten points if you guessed blue. Nice try if you guessed red, it’s the second most popular toothbrush colour. And as a bonus factoid, the average toothbrush has 2,500 bristles.
We hope you have enjoyed these little known factoids and maybe, just maybe, they’ll come in handy one day. We certainly had fun looking them up.
If you are looking for a dentist in the Milton or Scarborough areas please call us or visit one of our offices. Orion Dental loves helping young families keep bright, healthy smiles!
