Oral Hygiene Facts

We’ve compiled a list of fun and random oral hygiene facts that we’d love to share with you. Furthering patient education is important to us, so we thought we’d bring you some fun and interesting information related to oral hygiene

The average person produces a quart of saliva each day, which can accumulate to 10,000 gallons in a lifetime. Saliva is very important for good oral health because it cleanses food off your teeth. It also neutralizes the acids in your mouth and prevents bad breath. The saliva also fights bacteria.
Everyday an average person’s mouth accumulates about a hundred million micro-creatures who swim, feed, reproduce and deposit waste in your mouth. That’s why brushing and flossing your teeth is very important.
Our teeth are meant to last a lifetime. And the hardest part of our body is the tooth enamel, which is harder than our bones. For our teeth to last a lifetime, we need to take good care of them by brushing, flossing and visiting ‘Smile Institute’.
Studies have shown that 50 percent of the time, the first thing people notice about another person is their smile.
Everybody thinks that pearly white teeth are attractive. However, in the medieval era in Japan, pearly white teeth were considered to be ugly. The women in Japan during that time used inks and roots to stain their teeth black, which they feel is very attractive to others.
While we use our teeth to bite and chew our food, dolphins have no other use for their teeth but to grasp. They aren’t capable of chewing because their jaws have no muscles. Dolphins swallow their food without chewing. They eat cod, mackerel and herring and sometimes squid.
Dental floss was invented in 1882. An average person who flosses his teeth will use approximately five miles of floss in a lifetime. A prisoner from West Virginia was able to escape through braiding floss into a rope.
An individual who brushes his teeth twice a day for two minutes will accumulate about 24 hours of tooth brushing in a year. Also, in a lifetime, a person will use about 20 gallons of toothpaste.
In 1816, a tooth of Sir Isaac Newton was sold in London for an equivalent of today’s value of $35,700.
Archaeologists have evidence that dentists have been around for a long time with the first dental fillings found in people who lived 7,500 to 9,000 years ago.
China celebrates the “Love your teeth day” every September 20th. A giant tooth-shaped tower was built to promote dental health in China using 28,000 teeth.
In the medieval ages in Germany, people believed they had to kiss a donkey to cure a toothache.
The bristled toothbrush was invented in China in 1498. The bristles were composed of stiff hairs that came from the neck of a pig. Pig’s hair was used as bristles for toothbrushes until 1938 when nylon bristles were introduced. This typical toothbrush is composed of 2,500 nylon bristle strands which is grouped in forty tufts.
The earliest recipe of the toothpaste was from Egypt in 400 AD. The ingredients included dried iris flower, mint, grains of pepper and salt. A modern dentist imitated the formulation and tried it and found that his mouth felt fresh and clean.
In China and India at about 5000 BC, toothpaste was used to clean teeth. The ingredients included ground ox’s hooves, soot, crushed egg shells and honey. The first commercially available toothpaste was first launched by Colgate in 1873, which had the minty taste that we all know today.
Fillings have been found in Egyptian mummies. The fillings were composed of malachite and resin and a gold wire was used to bind loose teeth together.
About 2000 years ago, the Romans had an impressive dental knowledge. They had the idea of restoring cavity-ridden teeth using gold crowns and made use of fixed bridgework to fix the gaps from missing teeth. They also formulated their own toothpaste made from crushed eggshells and honey.
Every year, an estimated 5 million teeth are lost due to sports-related injuries. It’s recommended for every athlete, young or old, to use a mouth-guard.