You don’t need to become a dentist to know the basics of caring for your teeth. Brushing and flossing them twice a day keeps them clean of plaque and food debris, and routine professional teeth cleanings help keep your teeth free of disease. However, there are more interesting facts about teeth than what you need to know to maintain them on a daily basis. Some facts help describe your teeth’s unique nature, while others could help change the future of science and technology, as well as dentistry and medicine.

Did You Know? Uncommon Tooth Trivia

• Did you know that the enamel surrounding your teeth, which is ultra-thin and so semi-translucent that you can see through it, is the second-most resilient substance on earth, next to diamonds? It’s made of the same minerals as your bones (calcium and phosphate), but the mineral crystals are stretched thousands of times longer by the proteins that form enamel, making teeth significantly stronger than your bone.

• Most people realize that sugar can make your teeth weak and lead to cavities, but did you know that not eating certain nutrients can have a similar effect? Your body doesn’t produce calcium naturally, so you have to ingest it in your meals, and vitamin D is necessary for your body to utilize the mineral in proper proportions. Without them, your teeth can’t replenish enamel to keep it strong and effective, and eventually it won’t be able to repel decay-causing oral bacteria.

• If you’ve ever had to have a wisdom tooth removed, then you might be familiar with how pressing the need for an extraction can be. Did you know, though, that wisdom teeth may hold the secret to biological tooth replacement in the future? Researchers have discovered that the soft tissues inside of wisdom teeth can be harvested to form stem cells, which may be used to help tooth loss patients biologically grow their own replacement teeth in the future.

ABOUT YOUR SOUTHLAKE DENTISTS:

As a native Texan, Gregory Wright, DDS, opened his private practice in Southlake, TX in 1992. He and Dr. Victoria Heron are happily accepting new patients from Southlake, Grapevine, Keller, Trophy Club, Colleyville, and all surrounding communities. To learn more, call our office today at (817) 481-7999.