3 Dental Trivias From Your Blackburn Dentist

The main goal of a dentist isn’t to entertain. However, like anyone else, dentists love fun facts! While most people don’t spend very much time at all thinking about their teeth, there’s a wealth of fascinating information on the topic out there. If you’re looking for the most enjoyable dental facts, look no more. Here are three curious pieces of dental trivia provided to you by your Blackburn dentist:

1 – Koalas Teeth Keep On Growing Throughout Their Lives

As you may know, the diet of a koala consists mainly of eucalyptus leaves, from which they derive all of their nutrition. The problem with eucalyptus is that the leaves are coarse, making them hard to break down. 

This causes a real problem, as koalas teeth wear down from chewing on these leaves over time. As an evolutionary response, they have evolved four large teeth that continue to grow as they age. This is very unlike humans, who only develop a new set of teeth once. For koalas, whenever a tooth has eroded to almost nothing, they just grow a fresh new one! 

Unfortunately, koalas can’t keep growing new teeth endlessly. As they age, they eventually stop producing new teeth and die of starvation once their last teeth have gone. In a way, the life and death of koalas are dictated by their dental health! 

2- Human Wisdom Teeth Look Nothing Like Apes’

Image courtesy of pathwayz.org

If you look inside the mouth of an ape or monkey, you may be surprised to find out that they have some huge molars in the back. Again, this comes back to evolutionary adaptation. Since the diet of these animals is very rich in fibre, they need strong back teeth to chew everything thoroughly.

By contrast, the back teeth of humans are a lot smaller. And whereas our ancestors all used their wisdom teeth, more and more of us have no use for them. In fact, there is no room for wisdom teeth to grow in the mouths of most modern-day human beings, and many of us need them removed. 

Our diet is so different from apes that we barely need wisdom teeth, let alone large ones. Who knows, there may even come a time when we stop growing wisdom teeth altogether. 

3- Cavities Are Extremely Rare In The Animal Kingdom

Cavities are one of the most common problems that bring people to the dentist’s office. We certainly see a lot of them. Luckily, this is not something that wild animals have to deal with! Our modern-day diets are very high in sugar and acids, one of the leading causes of cavities and tooth decay. Animals in the wild eat a largely sugar-free diet, which is how they maintain healthy teeth for their whole lives.

Of course, there are also some other reasons why animals tend to have better dental health than the rest of us. For example, many don’t live as long, and many keep on growing teeth throughout their lives (like the koala!) 

The lesson here is that feeding sugar or other human food to your pets could cause cavities—so make sure to visit the vet if your pet is showing signs of tooth decay. And more importantly, it can be good to be a little bit more like wild animals sometimes and cut down on all that sugar. 

Summary

We sometimes have more in common with animals than we think. However, that’s not exactly the case for dental problems. Whether we’re talking about the koala’s ever-growing teeth or apes’ larger molars, there are a lot of significant differences there.

We hope you’ve enjoyed these three fun dental facts from the animal kingdom! If you have any more questions to ask about your own dental health, don’t hesitate to bring them up at your next appointment. Click here to find out more or book a consultation right now—we look forward to seeing you at your local Blackburn dentist’s office!