Oftentimes when we think of teeth we think about our own, human teeth but there are some wild facts out there about animal teeth that we bet you don’t know! We compiled a list of super fun and crazy animal dental facts for you to entertain with at your nephew’s birthday party this summer.
Mammals & Rodents
- Elephants grow molars up to six times in their lives because they grind them down from all their chewing. That’s 6 pounds of tooth they wear down!
- Historians believe that a long time ago — hundreds of years — people created the first mouthwash by boiling dog teeth in wine and gargling it to prevent tooth decay.
- Do you remember how painful and itchy it was when your teeth were growing in? Do you ever wonder why rats chew on everything? There is only one answer for both questions! The teeth of a rat never stop growing and they’re constantly itchy. They chew so much to try to relieve the pain.
- Much like rats, other rodents (like bunnies and squirrels) have ever-growing teeth. That explains why they eat such hard foods like nuts and tree bark, right?
- Animals that only eat plants have no need for incisors, so they use their lips to “cut” their greens into bite-sized chunks.
- Giraffes only have a row of bottom teeth and most of them are molars in the back of their jawbone!
- A horse’s teeth weigh more than its brain. Not kidding!
- Hippopotamuses have extremely long teeth that they use to defend themselves. Males’ canines can grow up to a foot and a half long!
Ocean Animals & Reptiles & Gastropods
- Did you know that the unicorn of the ocean, a narwhal, has only two teeth? One of them is the giant horn protruding out of their forehead!
- Turtles don’t have teeth, they have beaks. Except when they are born, turtles have a singular, sharp tooth which they use to cut through their eggshell.
- Much like a tree, a dolphin’s age can be determined by counting the rings on their teeth.
- A snail’s mouth seems so small, but certain breeds have over 25,000 teeth!
- Depending on the quality and breed, a shark’s tooth could be worth hundreds of dollars.
Birds & Insects
- The crocodile bird is a crocodile’s personal toothbrush. The bird flies into their open mouths and picks at the croc’s teeth.
- We all know that mosquitoes have needle-like “noses” but that needle is actually a mouth. If you look under a microscope, you would be able to clearly see that they even have 47 jagged, tooth-like points on their needle to prick people for blood.
- Scientists think that the T-Rex probably had close to 60 total teeth. That’s twice the amount of teeth we have as humans!
- Before modern dentistry people used to believe that tooth pain was caused by small worms living in their gums. When you tooth didn’t hurt when it normally did, that meant the worm was sleeping.
We hope you learned as much from this blog as we did! We don’t know about you, but we’re pretty thrilled to have only 32 flat teeth that serve their purpose just fine for our delicious diet. We definitely don’t need foot-long incisors to scarf down those french fries.
Just be sure you don’t forget to clean them, and take care of them though! You only get one permanent set, it’s important to treat them as such. At Silver Spring Family Smiles, we work hard to make sure that our patients are cared for and comfortable at all times. We may know a lot about animals but we won’t treat you like one! Contact us today and make an appointment for the whole family.
