Get your kids interested in their teeth and oral health by sharing these weird and fun dental facts with them!
1. Guess what the hardest material in your whole body is? It’s the enamel (the outer surface) of your teeth!
2. Baby teeth start developing before you're even born, when you're still in the womb. Even so, they only begin to come through the gums when you're between 6 and 12 months old.
3. Humans grow two full sets of teeth in life: the temporary baby teeth and the permanent adult teeth. So be sure to take good care of your adult teeth; there are no do-overs with those!
4. Humans have four different types of teeth: incisors, canines, premolars and molars. each type is used to perform different eating tasks, like cutting, tearing, chomping and grinding your food!
5. No two people have the exact same teeth. In fact, your teeth are as unique as your fingerprints!
6. Your mouth produces two swimming pools-worth of drool in your lifetime! That’s a hefty 25,000 quarts of saliva. So gross...
7. The average person (with healthy oral hygiene habits) will spend approximately 38.5 days brushing their teeth over a lifetime. Sounds like it might be a good idea to invest in an electric toothbrush and save yourself some work!
8. Many common diseases that doesn seem at all connected with your mouth are in fact directly or indirectly linked to your oral health: examples include diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis. Another great reason to take care of your dental health!
9. Only two thirds of a tooth’s length is actually visible above the gum line. There’s a whole other third of a tooth hiding underneath your gums!
10. Teeth are actually alive! If your tooth gets knocked out, you can put it in a glass of milk to help keep it alive long enough for the dentist to replace it. Just be sure you see your dentist as soon as you can.