Five Fun Facts About Your Teeth

Let’s face it, most of us probably take our teeth for granted. Although we depend on them to talk, bite and chew innumerable times in the course of our daily routines, we often don’t truly appreciate how vital they are until one of them has a problem.

Your friendly orthodontist at the office of  Woodhaven Braces — an expert at all things related to the function and appearance of your teeth — presents the following compendium of dental facts that you might not know:

• A tooth can actually grow in backward, upside down, or sideways. A tooth can even arrive in your mouth with a cavity. 

• Speaking of tooth decay, a cavity is one of the few things in our bodies that won’t heal on its own. A cavity will only grow bigger over the course of time, until the decay is removed, and a dentist puts in a filling. 

• Each one of us gets one set of 20 baby, or deciduous, teeth, and one set of 32 permanent ones. That is, unless you get extra, or supernumerary, teeth, or teeth that never develop, which are called congenitally missing teeth. It’s all in the genes. 

• If you think diet sodas or sports drinks are better for your teeth than soda that contains sugar, think again. These alternatives contain acids that can damage our teeth’s outer protective surface known as the enamel. Be aware that some flavored carbonated beverages and even bottled water can contain acids, too.

• The crown of the tooth that is visible to the eye is only about a quarter to a third of the entire tooth. The rest is hidden beneath the gum line.

The orthodontist office of Woodhaven Braces offers these morsels of information to underscore the vital role our teeth play not just in our appearance, but our quality of life. Please contact our office today to learn more.