The human teeth were intended to last for a person’s lifetime. According to the AAP or American Academy of Periodontology, around fifty percent of the population says that the smile is the initial feature that they notice about other people. People would often say that they ‘would kill for a Julia Robert’s smile’. How far would you go to achieve that? Here are fun and interesting facts about the teeth that you might find pretty interesting.
1. An average human being has around 32 teeth. This includes four wisdom teeth, eight incisors, four canines, twelve molars and eight premolars.
2. A person develops two sets of teeth in his entire lifetime. The first set is also known as your ‘baby teeth’ which will start to lose by the time you reach six or seven years old. When you reach 21 years of age, you already have your permanent set of teeth.
3. The People’s Republic of China has set aside September 20 as a national holiday for ‘Love your Teeth Day’.
4. In the 1800s, people who had false teeth in England ate in their bedrooms before gatherings and events at the dinner table. This unique Victorian tradition protected them against the embarrassment of having their teeth ‘fall off’ while dining.
5. The ancient Chinese usually wrapped tiny parchment around their painful teeth which contained written incantations and prayers to relieve pain.
6. The ancient Greeks used pliers for teeth extractions.
7. In Germany, a common Middle Age custom was to kiss a donkey to relieve toothaches.
8. A long time ago, humans utilized charcoal or ground up chalk, ashes, lemon juice, and honey-tobacco mixture to clean their teeth. It was only around a hundred years ago that the toothpaste was invented.
9. Dentists would recommend that you keep your toothbrush at least six feet away from your toilet to avoid many airborne particles that results from flushing.
10. Even before toothbrushes were invented, people used their fingers and twigs in cleaning their teeth.
11. Today, around forty percent of people over 65 years do not have a complete set of teeth.
12. In an entire human lifetime, the average person produces around 100,000 gallons of saliva. As people age, their salivary secretions also decrease making them more susceptible to dental diseases.
13. A root canal isn’t usually painful. With the use of today’s modern technology, root canals are nothing like what most people think it is. It can be as painless as a tooth filing.
Posted on: February 18th, 2011