15 Fascinating Dental Facts for Kids

by | Jan 22, 2014

You know how important it is to brush and floss your teeth daily. But to some Hendricks County kids, dental care can seem pretty boring. Well, why don’t you make their nighttime teeth-brushing time fun with these interesting – and even wacky – dental facts.

  1. The average person has 32 teeth – that includes 8 incisors, 4 canines, 8 pre-molars, 12 molars and 4 wisdom teeth.
  2. Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in your body.
  3. In a lifetime, the average person produces 25,000 quarts of saliva – that’s enough to fill 2 swimming pools. (Yuck, who wants to swim in saliva?)
  4. Over 300 different species of bacteria can be found in the plaque on your teeth. Just like your fingerprints, your teeth are unique – even if you’re an identical twin.
  5. The average person only spends about 48 seconds brushing their teeth. Dr. Jon Erickson recommends that all his Hendricks County patients brush at least 2 to 3 minutes.
  6. Airborne particles can travel up to 6 feet when the toilet is flushed. (Gross!) So, store your toothbrush at least 6 feet away.
  7. One in every 2000 babies is born with a tooth.
  8. Humans only have 2 sets of teeth in their entire lifetime – baby teeth and permanent teeth. Whereas, a lemon shark can grow a new set of teeth every 2 weeks – that’s over 24,000 new teeth every year.
  9. It takes 17 muscles to smile, but 43 muscles to frown.
  10. The Statue of Liberty’s mouth is 3 feet wide.
  11. Elephants have the largest teeth in the world, and single tooth can weigh over 6 pounds.
  12. In China, entire cities can be cavity-free because the people living there eat very little sugar. But guess which country has the most cavities per person? The United States of America.
  13. In Medieval Germany, they thought you could cure a toothache by kissing a donkey.
  14. Every year, over 3 million miles of dental floss is purchased by North Americans – that’s like traveling to the moon and back 6.27 times.
  15. A dentist co-invented the machine that makes cotton candy. (Hmmm … He should have known better. Or was he trying to get more patients?)

And here’s an interesting dental fact for you, mom and dad – more than 51 million hours of school are lost each year by children due to dental-related illness.
So, contact Danville Family Dentistry in Hendricks County to schedule your child’s next dental appointment today. We want to help keep your child’s mouth healthy, so he or she can have the best smile possible.