Did you know?
Interesting facts about teeth and dentistry
- The average American spends 38.5 total days brushing their teeth over a lifetime
- Every year, kids in North America spend close to half a million dollars on chewing gum
- Only 40% of young people age 6 to 19 have ever had a cavity. That's down 50% from a decade ago.
- More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones
- Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different
- The average woman smiles 62 times a day. The average man smiles about 8 times a day.
- Kids laugh around 400 times a day, adults just 15 times a day.
- 1882 was the year commercial floss was first manufactured.
- The most valuable tooth belonged to Sir Isaac Newton. In 1816 one of his teeth was sold in London for $3633, or in today's terns $35,700. The tooth was set in a ring! (source: Guinness World Records 2002).
- The average person only brushes for 45 to 70 seconds a day, the recommended amount of time is 2-3 minutes.
- More than 300 types of bacteria make up dental plaque.
- Dogs have 42 teeth, cats have 30 teeth, pigs have 44 teeth, and an armadillo has 104 teeth.
- The snail's mouth is no larger than the head of a pin, but it can have over 25,000 teeth!
- The elephant grinds its molars and grows new ones. This happens six times in a lifetime! An elephant's molar is about 7 inches square.
- The Blue Whale is the largest mammal on earth, but it eats only tiny shrimp because it has no teeth.
- The Crocodile Bird flies into the open mouth of a crocodile and cleans the crocodile's teeth!
- There are 10-12 teaspoons of sugar in a single can of soda.
Interesting facts about dental history
- In 1866, Lucy Beaman Hobbs became the first licensed female dentist.
- In 1986, the winner of the National Spelling Bee won by spelling ODONTALGIA(which means toothache)
- The average amount of money left by the tooth fairy in 1950 was 25 cents. In 1988 it was $1.00, the going rate now is $2.00
- The earliest dentist known by name is Hesi-Re. He lived in Egypt over 5000 years ago.
- The first toothbrushes were tree twigs. Chewing on the tips of the twigs spread out the fibers, which were then used to clean the teeth.
- Ancient Greeks used pumice, talc, alabaster, coral powder or iron rust as toothpaste.
- George Washington never had wooden teeth. His dentures were made from Gold, hippopotamus tush, elephant ivory and human teeth!
- In 1905, Dental Assistant Irene Newman was trained to clean teeth. She became the first Dental Hygienist.