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10 Fun Facts About Teeth

Here 10 funny (and some weird) dental facts that we think you’ll enjoy.

  1. The most valuable tooth belonged to Sir Isaac Newton. In 1816 one of his teeth was sold in London for $3,633.00 or in today’s terms $35,700.00. The tooth was set in a ring. (Guinness World Records 2002)
  2. Sugar Facts: Chemical manufacturers use sugar to grow penicillin. A teaspoon of sugar after a hot curry will extinguish the furnace in your mouth. A spoonful of sugar added to a vase will prolong the life of freshly cut flowers.
  3. Earliest Known Dental Work A total of 11 teeth from 9 adults who lived between 7,500 and 9,000 years ago contain holes drilled with sharpened flint points, according to a report in Science News Online. Flint-wielding specialists drilled holes, which are believed to have been filled with some type of material. The teeth came from residents of a prehistoric farming village called Mahrgarh in what is now Pakistan. (Source: Coppa, A., D.W. Frayer, R. Macchiarelli, 2006, Early Neolithic tradition of dentistry. Nature 440 (April 6):755-756)
  4. People with red hair are more sensitive to pain and consequently need more anesthetic during operations than other patients. Those with red hair needed 20 per cent more aesthetic to numb the pain. (New Scientist. Oct 2002)
  5. More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones.
  6. Royal smile. There is someone whose job includes squeezing Prince Charles’s toothpaste onto the royal toothbrush. That someone is Michael Fawcett, the prince’s personal valet. Since Fawcett is, according to various news reports, the only person Charles trusts with this awesome responsibility, one must presume that the heir to the throne’s dental hygiene declines precipitously whenever the valet goes on vacation. (MSNBC.com)
  7. Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.
  8. Dentists recommended to kept toothbrush at least six feet away from the toilet to prevent airborne particles.
  9. In Germany, during the Middle Ages, kissing a donkey was the only treatment for painful teeth.
  10. If you are left handed you tend to chew food on the left side.