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49 free Teeth trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
47 free Teeth trivia questions with answers. Teeth trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Dental & Dentist trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many teeth are in a full set of adult human teeth?
32
32: sixteen in each jaw, including the four wisdom teeth, which many people have removed or never grow at all.
Q 02How many baby teeth does a child usually get?
20
20 primary teeth, ten in each jaw; they start forming in the embryo at six to eight weeks and begin erupting around six months after birth.
Q 03What is the hardest substance in the human body?
Enamel
Enamel is about 96 percent mineral and rates about 5 on the Mohs hardness scale, roughly the same as a steel knife blade.
Q 04Why can the damaged outer layer of a tooth never grow back?
It contains no living cells
Enamel contains no living cells: the ameloblasts that build it are lost once the tooth erupts, so a cavity is permanent until a dentist fills it.
Q 05How many molars, including wisdom teeth, does a full adult mouth contain?
Twelve
Twelve: three molars in each quadrant, the third being the wisdom tooth; the rest of the 32 are eight incisors, four canines and eight premolars.
Q 06Which human teeth have the longest roots?
The upper canines
The upper canines have the longest roots of any human tooth; canines are the only teeth with a single cusp and are nicknamed eye teeth because the upper ones sit beneath the eyes.
Q 07Canine teeth are named for being especially prominent in which animal?
Dogs
Dogs: canine comes from Latin canis, dog, whose fangs are especially prominent; humans have four canines, and in many species the males' are far larger and used for display and fighting.
Q 08What is the technical name for a gap between two teeth, like the one Madonna has?
Diastema
A diastema is a gap between two teeth, most often the upper front pair; the French call them dents du bonheur, lucky teeth, and in Nigeria and Ghana the gap is considered attractive.
Q 09Below what pH does mouth acid begin dissolving a tooth's outer mineral layer?
5.5
Below pH 5.5, the critical pH, enamel's hydroxyapatite starts to dissolve; Streptococcus mutans turns sugar into lactic acid, which is why sweets and decay go together.
Q 10What is the soft tissue at a tooth's core, carrying its nerve and blood vessels, called?
The pulp
The pulp fills the chamber at the centre of a tooth with nerves and blood vessels that enter through the root tip; a cavity that reaches it is what makes a root canal necessary.
Q 11The narwhal's famous spiral tusk is actually what?
A canine tooth
The tusk is an elongated canine tooth that projects from the left side of the upper jaw; it can reach three metres and holds millions of nerve endings.
Q 12In medieval Europe, narwhal tusks were sold as what?
Unicorn horns
Narwhal tusks were sold as unicorn horns, prized as a cure for poison; at the peak of the trade a single tusk could fetch many times its weight in gold.
Q 13About how many teeth does a great white shark have at any one time?
Around 300
Around 300, set in several rows that move forward like a conveyor belt as front teeth are lost; some shark species shed around 35,000 teeth in a lifetime.
Q 21Which animal's teeth are made of thin hexagonal tubes, giving its order the name Tubulidentata?
The aardvark
The aardvark is the only living member of Tubulidentata; it is born with incisors and canines that fall out unreplaced, leaving rootless cheek teeth of hexagonal tubes that grow continuously.
Q 22How often can a crocodile replace each of its roughly 80 teeth over its lifetime?
Up to 50 times
Up to 50 times: a small replacement tooth waits beside every full-grown one, so a crocodile can go through several thousand teeth; unlike an alligator, its lower teeth show when the mouth is shut.
Q 23How long can a hippopotamus's lower canine teeth grow?
Up to 50 cm
Q 14The largest known shark teeth, more than seven inches tall, belonged to which extinct species?
Megalodon
Megalodon, extinct for about 3.6 million years, left teeth over seven inches tall that fetch steep prices from collectors; Dunkleosteus was an armoured fish with bony blades rather than teeth.
Q 15A snail carries thousands of microscopic teeth on a ribbon-like organ called what?
A radula
The radula is a chitinous ribbon that works like a rasp; limpet versions are hardened with iron and rank among the strongest biological materials known.
Q 16Which group of molluscs has no rasping tongue-ribbon at all?
Bivalves such as clams
Bivalves such as clams and oysters lost the radula entirely; they filter-feed with cilia on their gills instead of scraping.
Q 17An elephant's tusks are enormously overgrown versions of which kind of tooth?
Incisors
They are the second upper incisors; about a third of each tusk is hidden in the skull, and they keep growing around 17 cm a year for life.
Q 18How many sets of molars does an elephant go through in its lifetime?
Six
Six sets: new molars move forward from the back of the jaw like a conveyor belt; once the sixth and final set wears down in old age, the elephant can starve.
Q 19What defines a rodent's teeth?
Two pairs of ever-growing incisors
Two pairs of ever-growing incisors, one upper and one lower, define rodents; the name comes from Latin rodere, to gnaw, which they must do constantly to keep the incisors short.
Q 20A rodent's gnawing teeth stay razor sharp because the hard coating covers only which side of them?
The front face
Enamel covers only the front face of a rodent's incisors; the softer tissue behind wears away faster, leaving a self-sharpening chisel edge.
Up to 50 cm: the lower canines are weapons rather than feeding tools, kept sharp by grinding against the upper canines; hippos crop grass with their broad lips.
Q 24What does a giraffe have instead of upper front teeth?
A hard palate
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.
Q 25Which French physician's 1728 book The Surgeon Dentist earned him the title "father of modern dentistry"?
Pierre Fauchard
Pierre Fauchard's Le Chirurgien Dentiste (1728) blamed sugar acids for decay, described fillings and gold-wire braces, and set dentistry out as a profession in its own right.
Q 26What is the medical term for habitually grinding or clenching the teeth, often during sleep?
Bruxism
Bruxism is the clenching or grinding of teeth, often during sleep; it wears enamel flat and can cause jaw pain and headaches, and a night guard is the usual treatment.
Q 27In which country was the oldest known dental work, a 14,000-year-old cleaned tooth, found?
Italy
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.
Q 28Which official under Pharaoh Djoser is the first dentist named in history?
Hesy-Ra
Hesy-Ra, an official under Pharaoh Djoser around 2600 BC, bore the title chief of dentists and physicians, which makes him the first dentist named in history.
Q 29The world's first dental college opened in 1840 in which American city?
Baltimore
The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery invented the DDS degree and is now part of the University of Maryland.
Q 30What were George Washington's dentures made from?
Hippo ivory and human teeth
Hippopotamus ivory carved to hold human and animal teeth, held together with metal springs and wire; the wooden myth probably arose because the ivory stained brown, and he had one natural tooth left at his 1789 inauguration.