Scary Facts About Teeth

Maybe these facts aren’t going to have you jumping out of your seat, but hopefully they’ll surprise you just a bit! Here are some spooky (or just interesting) facts about teeth and related issues!

• Dentists recommend keeping your toothbrush at least six feet away from your toilet to prevent bacteria flying into the air and landing on it when the toilet is flushed. Frightening.

• Every day your salivary glands produce around two liters of, well, spit. Later on in life you produce less saliva which, surprisingly, is even grosser. Saliva helps wash away bacteria and fight disease, things you are more susceptible to when your body produces less.

• By not flossing you miss cleaning almost 40% of your teeth’s surfaces. Almost 40 is really almost 50, so by not flossing you’re leaving almost half of your teeth’s surfaces unclean!

• Before tooth decay was fully explained, many people thought it was caused by miniscule little worms that dug their way into your teeth and ate them. Weirdly enough later on boiled earthworms were used as ear drops to alleviate toothache.

• The common cold is the only disease more common than tooth decay.

• Long ago in Lebanon, missing teeth were replaced with various animal teeth, tied in place with string.

• Hamster teeth never stop growing. That means that frantic chewing you’ve seen them do, if you’ve ever had one as a pet, isn’t just a way to pass the time. It’s necessary to keep the length of their teeth under control.

Don’t be frightened, call Dr. Arzegar of the Lifetime Smiles today and schedule an appointment!