Did You Know? 15 Fun Dental Facts

At Clarinda Clinic we take dentistry very seriously, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun at the same time!

Here are 15 fun and quirky dental facts

• In 1994, a prison inmate in West Virginia braided dental floss into a rope, scaled the wall and escaped.
• Ancient Romans used urine and goats milk to whiten their teeth.
• The average human produces 23,650 litres of saliva in a lifetime. That is enough to fill 2 swimming pools!
• In previous times, barbers (known as barber surgeons) also performed surgery and dentistry.
• Each person’s set of teeth is unique much like their fingerprints. Even identical twins do not have exactly the same set of teeth. Forensic Dentistry is an integral part of most CSI departments.
• The snail’s mouth is no larger than the head of a pin, but it can have over 20,000 teeth!
• A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 965 km/h.
• The cotton candy making machine that made widely consumed cotton candy possible was co-invented by a dentist. Before it was cotton candy, the fluffy confection was called “fairy floss.”
• There is evidence that dentistry has been practiced since 7000 BC.
• Tooth enamel is the hardest part of the human body and can take 10,000 years to fossilize.
• If you don’t floss, you miss cleaning 35% of your tooth surfaces.
• It takes 17 muscles to smile and 43 to frown.
• Research says that people with periodontal disease (Gum disease) are at higher risk for developing heart disease, stroke, uncontrolled diabetes, pre-term births and respiratory disease.
• A tooth is a little like an iceberg. Two thirds of it is under the gum. Only one third of your tooth’s length is visible.
• The electric chair was invented by a dentist.