Fun dental facts

• The UK spends £5.8 billion/year on dental treatments.
• A quarter of adults admit they have not seen their dentist in 2 years and 2% of the population have never visited a dentist.
• About 40% of children don’t visit the dentist even once a year.
• People who drink 3 or more glasses of soda each day have 62% more tooth decay, fillings and tooth loss than others. There are 10-12 teaspoons of sugar in a single can of soda…
• 1 in 10 admits they regularly forget to brush their teeth.
• 1 in 3 people have never flossed their teeth.
• Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the human body.
• If you don’t floss, you miss cleaning 40% of your tooth surfaces.
• Brushing only once a day means you’re 33% more likely to develop tooth decay.
• If you’re right handed, you tend chew your food on your right side and if you’re left handed, you tend to chew your food on your left side.
• 6% of adults have no natural teeth in the UK. In 1978 this figure was 37%!
• More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones.
• Just like fingerprints, tooth and tongue prints are unique to each individual.
• The average woman smiles 62 times a day while the average man smiles about 8 times a day.
• Kids laugh around 400 times a day, adults just 15 times a day.
• Sugar makes up 15% of the daily calories consumed by 4-10 year olds.
• The average person only brushes for 45-70 seconds a day. The recommended amount of time is 2 minutes.
• 1882 was the year commercial floss was first manufactured. The earliest dentist known by name is Hesi-Re. He lived in Egypt over 5,000 years ago.
• The first toothbrushes were tree twigs. Chewing on the tips of the twigs spread out the fibres, which were then used to clean the teeth.
• Ancient Greeks used pumice, talc, alabaster, coral powder or iron rust as toothpaste.
• 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.
• A 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 and can weigh over 6 pounds.
• The blue whale is the largest mammal, but it eats only tiny shrimp because it has no teeth.
• Giraffes only have bottom teeth.
• The crocodile bird flies into the open mouth of a crocodile and cleans its teeth.

Last Updated on May 1, 2018