Ha Cha-cha-cha-cha!

For this week's blog connection, much like some of my senior project classmates, I will share some "dental fun facts" that most people don't think about. All facts, and pictures, have been provided by http://www.fulcherorthodontics.com/dentalfun.html. 

• Each person's set of teeth is unique - much like their fingerprints - even in identical twins.
• Some cheeses are have been found to protect teeth from decay.
• The Mexican version of the Tooth Fairy is known as the Tooth Mouse, which takes the tooth and leaves treasures in its place.
• If you're right handed, you will chew your food on your right side. If you're left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.                
• The major causes of tooth loss in people under age 35 are sports, accidents and fights.
• George Washington's dentures were made from walrus, hippopotamus, and cows' teeth, as well as elephant tusks.
• The most valuable tooth was one a nobleman purchased - belonging to the famous scientists Isaac Newton - for $4,560. It was set in a ring.
• In 200 AD, the Romans used a mixture of bones, eggshells, oyster shells and honey to clean their teeth.
• Queen Elizabeth I's teeth were noticeably discolored. A German traveler, Paul Henter, speculated that the discoloration was due to the Queen's excessive consumption of sugar, making the first recorded association between sugar and tooth decay.
• The second most common disease in the United States is tooth decay. The first is the common cold.
• Ants can lift an object up to fifty times their body-weight and carry it over their heads. They don't do this with their feet, but with their mouths.
• Crocodiles don't clean their own teeth - they let a plover (little bird) pick their teeth for scraps of leftover food.
• The largest toothed mammal in the world is the sperm whale. A whale's lower jaw, measuring 16'5" long, is exhibited in the British Museum of Natural History in London. The whale it belonged to reportedly measured 84 feet in length.
• A snail can have about 25,000 teeth (on its tongue).
• Horses teeth are extremely long and grow continually. They wear down, change shape and become discolored as they grow, so we can really tell a horse's age by looking at his teeth.
• A shark's teeth are literally as hard as steel.

One fact that I found particularly interesting was about teeth being unique. Before reading this, I thought, based on my own observation, people's teeth closely resembled their mothers'. I guess I have much more to learn about the dental profession and its studies.