97 Fun Facts About Teeth

Scurvy makes gums swell and bleed until teeth can fall out; a lack of which vitamin leads to it?

Vitamin C: it comes mainly from fruit and vegetables, and most people treated for scurvy start feeling better within days.

A baby's first teeth usually arrive at around six months; which ones most often come through first?

Bottom front teeth: the top pair usually follows, but some babies start teething before four months, and a few are even born with a tooth.

Which Arctic animal hauls itself onto ice with its tusks and sucks shellfish out of their shells?

The walrus: apart from its tusks its teeth are flat, so it seals its lips to its prey and pulls back a piston-like tongue to create a vacuum.

Why can the damaged outer layer of a tooth never grow back?

It contains no living cells: saliva and fluoride can put back minerals lost in early decay, but once a cavity forms, the body can't rebuild the lost enamel.

The proverb 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' comes from checking a horse's teeth to judge what?

Its age: a horse's gums recede as it grows older, making its teeth look longer, which also gave us the phrase 'long in the tooth'.

Which whale has no teeth at all and strains krill through plates of baleen instead?

The blue whale: the largest animal ever to live gulps huge mouthfuls of krill-filled water, then pushes the water out through its baleen with its tongue.

The pointed 'eye teeth' take their other name from the Latin word for which animal?

Dogs: canine comes from Latin canis, 'dog', and the upper ones are called eye teeth because they sit just beneath the eyes.

What is the technical name for a gap between two teeth?

A diastema: many mammals have one as a normal feature, and in horses that toothless gap is exactly where a rider's bit rests.

Which acid, made by mouth bacteria feeding on sugar, is the main cause of tooth decay?

Lactic acid: each sugary snack sets off a fresh acid attack, which is why sipping and grazing all day does more damage than one dessert.

What is the soft tissue at a tooth's core, carrying its nerve and blood vessels, called?

The pulp: if decay or a crack lets bacteria infect it, a root canal clears it out, or the tooth may have to be pulled.

Which wild pig's upper tusks grow up through the top of its snout and curve back toward its forehead?

Babirusa: if a male's tusks aren't worn down, they can keep growing and, in rare cases, pierce its own skull.

In medieval Europe, narwhal tusks were sold as what?

Unicorn horns: buyers believed the horns could protect them against poison.

About how many teeth does a great white shark have at any one time?

About 300: they sit in rows that move forward like a conveyor belt, and a great white keeps growing replacements as long as it lives.

The largest known shark teeth, more than seven inches tall, belonged to which extinct species?

Megalodon: a shark's skeleton is cartilage that rarely fossilises, so megalodon is known almost entirely from teeth like these.

A snail's rows of microscopic teeth sit on which ribbon-like feeding organ?

A radula: some predatory sea snails pair it with an acid secretion to drill through other molluscs' shells and eat what's inside.

Which group of molluscs has no rasping tongue-ribbon at all?

Bivalves such as clams: they have no head either, and their big gills do the feeding, trapping food in mucus that cilia carry to the mouth.

Which burrowing East African rodent digs its tunnels with its big front teeth?

The naked mole-rat: it lives in colonies like an ant's nest, where only the queen breeds while workers dig the burrows with those teeth.

Which animal goes through up to six sets of cheek teeth in its lifetime?

The elephant: new teeth don't grow up from below but form at the back of the jaw and push the worn ones forward and out.

Which animal nicks skin with razor-sharp front teeth, then laps up the blood that flows?

The vampire bat: anticoagulants in its saliva keep the blood from clotting, so the wound keeps flowing while it feeds.

A rodent's gnawing teeth stay razor sharp because the hard coating covers only which side of them?

Enamel covers only the front face of a rodent's incisors; the softer tissue behind wears away faster, leaving a self-sharpening chisel edge.

About how many times may a crocodile replace each of its roughly 80 teeth over its life?

About 50 times: a small replacement tooth waits under each working one, and each tooth is swapped out roughly once a year.

What do hippos mainly use their huge lower tusks for?

Fighting: hippos battle with those tusks, while the chewing is left to their molars.

What does a giraffe have instead of upper front teeth?

A hard palate, or dental pad, meets the lower incisors, as in cattle; the giraffe strips leaves with a 45 cm dark tongue whose colour may protect against sunburn.

Which French physician's book The Surgeon Dentist earned him the title 'father of modern dentistry'?

Pierre Fauchard: he rejected the old idea that worms caused tooth decay, blaming acids from sugar instead, and filled cavities with tin or lead.

What is the medical term for habitually grinding or clenching the teeth, often during sleep?

Bruxism: stress and anxiety are common triggers, and it can wear teeth down and leave the jaw painful.

In which country was the oldest known dental work, a 14,000-year-old cleaned tooth, found?

Italy: a 14,000-year-old molar from Riparo Villabruna in the Dolomites had decay scraped out with a flint tool; Stone Age dentists at Mehrgarh in modern Pakistan were drilling teeth with bow drills around 7000 BC.

Which official under Pharaoh Djoser is often called the earliest named dentist?

Hesy-Ra: one of his titles can be read as 'great one of the dentists', though it may instead mean 'great one of the ivory cutters'.

The world's first dental college opened in 1840 in which American city?

Baltimore: yet John Harris had already been training dental students at a small school in Bainbridge, Ohio.

What were George Washington's dentures made from?

Ivory and human teeth: none of his sets used wood, and he complained that his dentures made his lips bulge out.

The Etruscans made partial dentures from the 7th century BC by fastening teeth with bands of what?

Gold: some writers have called these appliances ancient braces, but reviews find no evidence they were used to move teeth.

Which American city was the first in the world to add fluoride to its water supply, in January 1945?

Grand Rapids, Michigan: the idea traced back to dentist Frederick McKay, who found that children with 'Colorado brown stain' had fewer cavities.

Why did US guidelines once call for less added fluoride in tap water for warmer places?

They drink more water: the dose matters, because too little does little for decay while too much leaves white streaks on children's teeth.

The first bristle brushes for teeth, hog bristles on bamboo or bone handles, came from which country?

China: when such brushes reached Europe, users found the hog bristles too stiff and preferred softer horsehair.

The first nylon-bristle toothbrush, sold in 1938, used fibre from which chemical company?

DuPont: its new nylon went into toothbrush bristles in 1938, a year or more before the famous nylon stockings reached the shops.

What is the name for inflammation of the gums, the earliest stage of gum disease?

Gingivitis is gum inflammation caused by plaque along the gumline, showing as red, swollen gums that bleed when brushed; untreated it can progress to periodontitis, which destroys the bone around teeth.

Which company first sold toothpaste in jars in 1873, and later adopted the collapsible tube?

Colgate: the company had started out making soap and candles, and it moved its toothpaste from glass jars into tubes in 1896.

The first fluoride toothpaste to win American Dental Association approval was which brand?

Crest: royalties from Procter & Gamble helped Joseph Muhler's Indiana University team set up a dental research institute there.

In 1819, dentist Levi Spear Parmly recommended flossing with waxed thread made of what?

Silk: Parmly called the waxed silken thread the most important part of cleaning, since it dislodged matter no brush could reach.

In 1844 dentist Horace Wells had his own tooth pulled to demonstrate which anaesthetic?

Nitrous oxide: after seeing Gardner Colton's laughing-gas show, Wells had John Riggs pull his molar under the gas in December 1844; his Boston demonstration weeks later went wrong and he was mocked as a humbug.

In Spain and much of Latin America, which character collects children's lost teeth instead of a fairy?

Ratoncito Pérez: the mouse came from folk tales, but Luis Coloma made him a collector of lost teeth in an 1894 story for eight-year-old King Alfonso XIII.

Which early Christian martyr is popularly regarded as the patron saint of dentists?

Saint Apollonia: church tradition says her torturers broke or pulled out all her teeth, so she is invoked against toothache and shown holding a tooth in pincers.

Who identified Joseph Warren's remains months after Bunker Hill by a false tooth he had fitted?

Paul Revere: the remains showed that Warren had been shot in the head, most likely dying instantly.

Which serial killer's murder conviction relied partly on now-discredited bite-mark evidence?

Ted Bundy's 1979 Chi Omega conviction rested partly on a bite mark on a victim matched to his teeth; the National Academy of Sciences has since concluded bite marks cannot reliably identify a person.

Which organisation developed the nickel-titanium alloy later used to make wire for dental braces?

The Naval Ordnance Laboratory: braces use the alloy because it springs back toward its original shape, giving teeth a steady push.

Which term describes animals whose milk teeth are replaced by a set of adult teeth?

Diphyodont: the milk teeth still matter, since they help keep the right spacing for the adult teeth that follow.

What is the thin bone-like layer covering a tooth's root, where the periodontal ligament attaches, called?

Cementum: it is normally hidden below the gumline, so seeing it usually means the gums have receded, often a sign of gum disease.

Premolars are also known by what other name?

Bicuspids: they have at least two cusps, and unlike molars they appear only in the adult set, taking the place of the baby molars.

Which tissue is the hardest substance in the human body?

Enamel, the glossy outer shell of every tooth, is about 96% mineral, the highest share of any tissue in the body. Water and organic material make up the rest.

Dentist William Morrison and a confectioner invented the 1897 machine that first made which sugary fairground treat?

Cotton candy reached a wide public at the 1904 World's Fair under the name Fairy Floss, which Australians still use for it.

Dentist Alfred Southwick, seeking a kinder alternative to hanging, proposed which execution method in the 1880s?

The electric chair owes its shape to dentistry: Southwick was used to treating people who were sitting down. New York first used it in 1890.

Which gunfighter at the O.K. Corral had earned a dental surgery degree in Philadelphia at the age of 20?

Doc Holliday graduated five months before his 21st birthday, so the college held his degree until he was old enough to practise.

Which common lawn weed takes its English name from the French for lion's tooth, after its jagged leaves?

Dandelion is a worn-down form of the Old French dent de lion, itself a translation of the medieval Latin dens leonis.

Ancient Romans, who also cleaned their clothes with it, tried to whiten their teeth using which bodily fluid?

Urine was a Roman cleaning staple. Left to ferment, it was also used to lift grease stains out of clothing.

Dentists advise carrying a knocked-out adult tooth to the surgery in a cup of which cold drink?

Milk has an acidity and salt balance close to the body's own, which keeps the cells on the root alive until the tooth can be put back.

Which dinosaur's teeth, up to 30 cm long with the root, are the largest of any known meat-eating dinosaur?

Tyrannosaurus had thick teeth shaped more like bananas than daggers, driven by the strongest estimated bite of any land animal.

Which reef fish scrapes coral with a beak of tightly packed teeth and excretes the ground-up rock as sand?

Parrotfish help build tropical beaches and small islands. A big bumphead can turn out several hundred pounds of white sand a year.

Which Tudor monarch's teeth were black from sugar, according to a German traveller who visited the court?

Elizabeth I was 64 when visitor Paul Hentzner noted her black teeth, a defect he thought the English owed to eating too much sugar.

A classic dental amalgam filling, silver in colour, is about half which metal by weight?

Mercury makes up about 50% of a standard amalgam: the liquid metal is mixed with a powder of silver, tin and copper, then sets hard. A Chinese recipe was in print by 1505.

A beaver's orange front teeth resist acid thanks to compounds of which metal in their hard coating?

Iron makes the hard coating on the four chisel-shaped teeth more resistant to acid, and the teeth keep growing for the whole of the animal's life.

James Bond henchman Jaws, played by Richard Kiel in two 1970s films, bites with teeth made of which metal?

Steel teeth were producer Cubby Broccoli's idea. Designer Katharina Kubrick made them cog-shaped, fearing pointed ones could injure the actor.

In Pixar's Finding Nemo, the young clownfish ends up in a dentist's fish tank in which city?

Sydney is where dentist Philip Sherman keeps Nemo. Director Andrew Stanton drew on childhood dental visits, when he imagined the tank fish wanted to go home to the ocean.

In the 2010 comedy Tooth Fairy, which former wrestler plays an ice hockey enforcer made to collect children's teeth?

Dwayne Johnson's character is nicknamed the Tooth Fairy for hitting opponents so hard their teeth come out, then has to do the job for real as a punishment.

In the 1986 musical film Little Shop of Horrors, which comedian plays the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello?

Steve Martin's dentist meets his match in a pain-loving patient played by Bill Murray, a part based on one a young Jack Nicholson had in the 1960 original.

Dentures made with teeth pulled from dead soldiers took their nickname from which Napoleonic battle?

Waterloo teeth were in demand because they came from fairly healthy young men. Tens of thousands were taken from the dead by troops, locals and scavengers.

Which medieval tradesmen also pulled teeth, let blood and amputated limbs?

Barbers got the work because they already owned razors and had steady hands. Their red-and-white pole is said to recall the blood and bandages of the trade.

Ohaguro, the custom of dyeing the teeth black as a mark of beauty, lasted for centuries in which country?

Japan prized the look and also thought it healthy: the black coating worked like a sealant that helped keep decay away.

Which medieval raiders sometimes filed grooves into their upper front teeth, a possible badge of warrior status?

Vikings with filed teeth are known from Scandinavian burials, and one was among 54 executed men found in a mass grave near Weymouth in Dorset.

Some ancient Maya lords, whose nobility practised dental modification, wore which green stone set into their teeth?

Jade was prized for its rarity across ancient Mesoamerica, and craftsmen also shaped it into figurines and large ear spools.

A Babylonian tablet blames toothache on which creature, said to drink the blood and eat the roots of teeth?

A worm living inside the tooth was a long-lived explanation for decay. The dead soft core of a tooth, pulled out whole, can look remarkably like one.

Boston dentist William Morton made medical history in 1846 by first publicly demonstrating which surgical anaesthetic?

Ether had already let Morton pull a patient's tooth painlessly about two weeks earlier. A newspaper report of that extraction led a Boston surgeon to arrange the famous demonstration.

Alfred Einhorn's drug procaine, shunned by surgeons for amputations, won over dentists under which trade name?

Novocaine joins the Latin for new to -caine, the ending shared by numbing alkaloids. Surgeons preferred to put patients fully under, but dentists found it very useful.

Which medical term for bad breath, coined in 1874, only became common after 1920s adverts for Listerine?

Halitosis was coined by physician Joseph William Howe, decades before the mouthwash campaign sold a cure for the chronic kind. The brand is often wrongly credited with inventing the word.

Plaque left on the teeth hardens into which crusty deposit, too firmly attached for a toothbrush to shift?

Tartar shares its name with the white crust that forms inside casks, the source of cream of tartar. Only a dentist's scaler or ultrasonic tool will remove it.

Which part of a tooth, the section above the neck, shares its name with a cap fitted over a damaged tooth?

The crown stays hidden inside the jawbone until the tooth erupts. Under its hard white shell, most of it is a softer, yellowish tissue.

Which teeth, eight in a full human set, take their name from the Latin verb meaning to cut?

Incisors are the front teeth of most mammals. A child's first set already includes eight of them, the same number as an adult's.

British dentist Woolf Krause fashioned the first mouthguards in 1892 for competitors in which sport?

Boxing gave the idea its start: Krause pressed strips of gutta-percha, a natural rubber resin, over fighters' upper front teeth before they entered the ring.

Which mineral, also the main mineral of human bone, makes up most of a tooth's hard outer coating?

Hydroxyapatite accounts for as much as 70% of human bone by weight, where its crystals sit in a mesh of collagen. In teeth the share is higher still.

Which mouth bacterium, first described by James Kilian Clarke in 1924, is a leading cause of dental decay?

Streptococcus mutans turns table sugar into a sticky coating that lets plaque cling to the teeth. No other sugar gives it the raw material for that glue.

Which sugar alcohol, sometimes called birch sugar, sweetens many chewing gums and toothpastes?

Xylitol can be extracted from birch wood, hence the nickname. A 2022 review suggested that gum sweetened with it cuts plaque, while sweets containing it do not.

Which condition, seen as paper-white flecks on the teeth, comes from too much decay-preventing mineral in childhood?

Fluorosis can only take hold while teeth are still forming, so the years of highest risk run from birth to about the age of six.

Which condition, which can stop neighbouring teeth from coming through, means growing extra teeth beyond the normal set?

Hyperdontia usually means just one surplus tooth. Several at once are rare unless a wider syndrome is involved.

Which dental specialty corrects crooked teeth and misaligned bites, usually with braces worn for a year or two?

Orthodontics changed in the mid-1970s: until then, braces were made by wrapping a band of metal around every single tooth.

Which dental treatment removes the infected soft core of a tooth, then disinfects and fills the hollows left behind?

Root canal work ends with the cleaned hollows packed with gutta-percha, an inert rubbery filling, and sealed with cement.

What is the name for a localised collection of pus around a tooth, most often forming at the tip of the root?

An abscess sometimes drains itself by bursting through the gum like a boil, though the infection can also spread well beyond the tooth.

Which Ice Age predator, California's state fossil, had curved upper fangs about 28 cm long in its largest species?

Smilodon gave up bite force for those long, fragile blades and an extra-wide gape, relying on a robust body to pin prey before the killing bite.

The teeth of which rock-clinging sea snail beat spider silk as the strongest known biological material?

Limpets build each tooth from goethite crystals grown along chitin fibres, reaching tensile strengths of up to 6.5 gigapascals against 4.5 for the silk.

Which heavy-bodied African snake has the longest fangs of any venomous species, at about five centimetres?

The Gaboon viper also delivers the highest venom yield of any snake, and it hangs on to its prey after striking instead of letting go.

Which plant-eating dinosaurs, thought to have grazed on low horsetails, chewed with stacked dental batteries of teeth?

Hadrosaurs replaced the teeth in each battery continuously, so the broad grinding surface never wore out. Their flat snouts earned them the name duck-billed dinosaurs.

Which feathered Jurassic animal from Solnhofen in Germany, long accepted as the oldest known bird, had sharp teeth?

Archaeopteryx also kept a long bony tail and three clawed fingers, features it shared with small predatory dinosaurs.

Which group of living reptiles has no teeth at all, biting instead with a keratin beak along the edges of the mouth?

Turtles do start life with one tooth-like spike: hatchlings break out of the shell using an egg tooth, a sharp point on the upper beak that soon disappears.

Which North American mammal has 50 teeth, more than any other land mammal there, and bares them all when threatened?

The opossum backs up its 50-tooth display by snapping its jaw, hissing, drooling and raising its fur to look bigger.

Which South American relative of the piranha has squarish, straight teeth for crushing seeds and nuts?

Pacu teeth are sturdy enough to snap nylon fishing leaders, so anglers on stocked ponds are told to rig braided ones instead.

What is the name for the whalers' art of engraving pictures on sperm whale teeth and darkening the lines with soot?

Scrimshaw was scratched out with sailing needles in spare hours at sea, so the roll of the ship shaped the drawing as much as the artist's skill.

The Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, said to hold a tooth of the Buddha, stands in which country?

Sri Lanka's kings guarded the relic for centuries, because whoever held it was believed to hold the right to govern the country.

In Greek myth, the hero Cadmus sowed the teeth of which slain creature, from which armed warriors sprang?

A dragon sacred to Ares had guarded the spring, so the god made Cadmus serve him for eight years as penance. The sown men were called the Spartoi.

Which teeth-cleaning twig, cut from the Salvadora persica tree, has long been used across the Middle East?

Miswak was recommended by the World Health Organization in 1986, though a later expert report asked for more research on its effects. In Arabic the stick is also called siwak or arak.

Which author of Riders of the Purple Sage began writing in the evenings to escape the tedium of his dental practice?

Zane Grey had studied dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship, and unhappily judged it a more practical career than writing or sport.