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Interesting Teeth and Dental Facts

1. Children Are Not the Most Cavity-Prone Age Demographic
Just ask anyone working at a dental centre in Ottawa "aren't children the most prone to cavities?" and they will tell you that senior citizens are actually the group that holds that claim. While adding fluoride to drinking water has done wonders for the teeth of the next generation, the elderly, relying on many sorts of medications, often have more issues. This discrepancy is due to the common side effect of drying of the mouth found in many medications.

2. Snails Have More Teeth Than Any Other Animal
While not in the same shape as a human's teeth, the teeth of a snail are arranged in rows along its tongue. While your average garden snail is slowly moving around with roughly 14,000 teeth, other species can have more than 20,000. Furthermore, the teeth of the limpet, a type of snail that lives underwater, are stronger than titanium.

3. A Shark's Teeth Are Like a Vending Machine
Sharks have evolved to be very good at killing. This purpose also means that they are bound to lose a few teeth over time. Unlike a wolf, another predator, a shark's body is equipped to handle tooth loss by simply sliding another one forward to fill in the gap in much the same way as when you pick something out of a vending machine. After you buy whatever you want, the machine's mechanism pushes another item forward to take up the space of the one you bought.

4. Animals Rarely Get Cavities
Since most animals eat a variety of tough materials, including bone or tree bark, they rarely ever have teeth that are at risk of cavities-especially since sugar rarely shows up in their diets. The one exception to this situation would be domestic pets who are given a decent amount of sugar on a regular basis; these animals should have their teeth cleaned every so often.

5. People Brush for Just Over a Month of Life
The Upper Hunt Club Dental Centre in Ottawa advises patients to brush twice a day. When you add up all the time spent on every session of brushing your teeth, that time adds up to roughly 38 days and 12 hours. In short, a person spends around five weeks of their life on keeping their pearly whites clean and their breath fresh.

6. Women Smile Far More Often Than Men
Statistics indicate that while a woman shows her teeth with a smile around 68 times a day on average, the average man only smiles around 8 times a day.

7. Tooth Decay Is One of the World's Most Common Ailments
Tooth decay is the second most common disease that humans have to deal with. The only disease that happens to more people would be the common cold.

8. Cotton Candy Was Made by a Dentist
Despite how bad candy is for the health of a smile, cotton candy, originally marketed as fairy floss, was actually created by a dentist. Dr. William Morrison collaborated with John C. Wharton, a confectioner, and debuted the treat at the 1904 World's Fair. Later on, in 1921, Dr. Joseph Lascaux, also a dentist, came up with a similar machine to the Morrison-Wharton device. The distinction between the two is that Lascaux's patent is where the name "cotton candy" originates.

9. A Lot Goes into Making a Toothbrush
Your average toothbrush has around 2,500 bristles that are divvied up among 40 tufts. These tufts are folded over a metal staple and guided into pre-cored holes at the head, then fused into that head with heat. The handle of a toothbrush is composed of two materials, commonly plastic and rubber, and its grip can be designed for distal oblique, oblique, power, precision or even as a spoon.

10. Feeling Ill? Check The Mouth
When you look at all of the diseases, ailments and disorders that can plague the human body, there is one amazingly useful piece of advice that applies to most of them. If something feels off, check the person's mouth; 90% of all diseases that can affect the human body involve some sort of oral component, symptom, or telltale sign.

Want to learn more about dental health, or your dental health? Visit us at the Upper Hunt Club Dental Centre in Ottawa. Contact us today to schedule an appointment!

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