43 Tooth & Dental Facts For Kids

Here at Kidadl, we like to stay healthy!

The human body is an incredible thing, and we like to look after it, whether it's eating right or exercising. If you have children who want to find out more, why not share these amazing Stroke Facts or Aluminium Facts with them?

And if you're looking to encourage good habits, why not share this collection of fun facts about dental health.
 

Learn all about teeth, and what makes them unique, with these fun dental facts.

1. Tooth enamel, the shiny white coating that covers the teeth, is the hardest substance in the human body - even stronger than bone.

2. At 96%, tooth enamel has the highest percentage of minerals of any tissue in the whole body.

3. The main mineral found in tooth enamel is called hydroxyapatite, or crystalline calcium phosphate.

4. There are 20 primary teeth, or baby teeth, and all of them are already in a baby's jaw when they are born, hiding underneath their gums.

5. Although some babies are born with a tooth or two already showing!

6. Adults can have up to 32 permanent teeth.

7. Teeth are unique - no set is the same, just like fingerprints: and your tongue print is unique too!

8. The average American spends nearly 40 days brushing their teeth over the course of their lifetime.

9. About 300 types of different bacteria make up dental plaque, the material that sticks to teeth and releases acids that eat away at the tooth’s enamel and causes cavities.

10. Adults have four different types of teeth: 12 molars (including 4 wisdom teeth, which not everybody will get), eight premolars, four canines and eight incisors.

11. You chew your food on the same side of your mouth as your dominant hand. So if you’re right-handed, you’ll chew mostly on the right side of your mouth.

12. Children start to lose their teeth at around 5 or 6 years old, as they're pushed out by their permanent teeth growing in.

13. Inside your tooth, there is pulp, that contains nerves and blood vessels, which is surrounded by dentin and finally enamel.

14. The average woman smiles 62 times a day, whereas the average man only smiles around 8 times a day.

15. Children laugh around 400 times a day, whereas adults laugh only 15 times a day.

These facts about brushing teeth will help kids learn everything they need to know to maintain their dental health.

16. You should brush your teeth twice a day to protect your oral health and prevent tooth loss.

17. You should also use dental floss twice a day to clean the areas between your teeth.

18. The average person only brushes their teeth for 45 to 70 seconds a day, but it is recommended that you brush for two-three minutes.

19. Brushing your teeth also helps to stimulate the gums, keeping them healthy and helping to prevent gum disease.

20. Brushing too much, or for too long, can also damage your teeth by wearing away the enamel.

The whole family will be amazed by these interesting facts about teeth for kids.  

21. Tooth decay was low in pre-agricultural societies, but the growth in farming about 10,000 years ago came with an increase in tooth decay, otherwise known as cavities.

22. An infected tooth from Italy, thought to be between 13,820 and 14,160 years old, which has been partially cleaned with flint tools, is the oldest known example of dentistry.

23. A 2017 study suggested that Neanderthal people, who lived 130,000 years ago, probably used rudimentary dentistry tools to care for their dental health.

24. Evidence has been found that the Indus Valley Civilization, a bronze age civilization located in regions that are now in modern Pakistan, North-West India and Afghanistan, practiced dentistry as far back as 7000 BC.

25. An Indus Valley Civilization site in Mehrgarh, Pakistan, shows that their dentistry involved using bow drills.

26. The earliest dental filling dates from 6500 years ago; it was discovered in Slovenia and was made of beeswax.

27. An ancient Sumerian text describes a "tooth worm" as the cause of tooth decay; evidence of this belief has also been found in ancient India, Egypt, Japan, and China and can be found in surgical documents as late as the 14th century AD.

28. Levi Spear Parmly, a dentist from New Orleans, invented the first form of modern dental floss in 1815.

Get the kids brushing with these dentistry facts.

29. Tooth decay is the second most common disease in the United States, behind the common cold.

30. The French surgeon Pierre Fauchard, who was born in 1678,  became known as the "father of modern dentistry" and he wrote the first complete scientific description of dentistry, Le Chirurgien Dentiste, which was published in 1728.

31. Studies have shown that gum disease is associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

32. 78% of people from North America have at least one cavity by the age of 17.

33. Dentists diagnose and treat problems with teeth, gums and other parts of the mouth, using procedures like cleaning, filling cavities and extractions.  

34. If you never see a dentist, you might end up with very bad dental and oral health resulting in tooth loss.

Get the whole family laughing with this list of weird facts about teeth.

35. In 1816, a tooth belonging to Sir Isaac Newton was sold in London, England for $3,633 (today's equivalent would be around $35,700), making it the most valuable tooth according to the Guinness World Records (2002).

36. You can exert roughly 200 pounds of pressure when you bite down, but biting down that hard can result in breaking your teeth!  

37. Cats have 30 teeth, dogs have 42 teeth and pigs have 44 teeth.

38. The blue whale might be the largest mammal on earth, but it has no teeth - it only eats tiny prawn-like crustaceans called krill, which it swallows whole.

39. According to Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, crocodiles would lie on the shore with their mouths open and a bird called "trochilus" would fly inside its mouth to clean its teeth, but this is disputed by modern biologists.

40. The elephant grinds its molars and grows new ones six times during its lifetime, and each molar is about seven 7 inches square and can weigh more than six pounds.

41. Despite having a mouth no larger than the head of a pin, a snail can have over 25,000 teeth!

42. Every year, people in North America spend nearly half a million dollars on chewing gum.

43. Giraffes only have bottom teeth; the top is a hard pad to protect the mouth when foraging.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 43 Tooth & Dental Facts For Kids, then why not take a look at Gross Facts, or Bulb Facts?