Dental Trivia and Wierd Facts

• The Father of our country--George Washington-- had several dentures made of hippopotamus, cow, walrus teeth and elephant’s tusks.
• They were held in place by a spring attached to both uper and lower dentures. The stone-faced farmer in the famous painting, American Gothic, was artist Grant Wood’s dentist.
• Paul Revere, in addition to earning a living as a silversmith and copper plate engraver, also worked as a dentist.
• A $250,000 mechanical mouth developed by dental researchers can duplicate a year’s worth of chewing in 24 hours and take four bites per second, thus drastically speeding up the testing of dental materials. Unfortunatly, it keeps breaking down!
• Next to the common cold, tooth decay remains the most prevalent disease in the United States, even though a third of all youngsters between the ages of 5 and 17 cavity free.
• Athletic mouth guards have been credited with preventing many sports injuries each year. The total number of orthodontic patients has doubled since 1971 and today 15 to 20 percent of patients wearing braces are between the ages of 20 and 60.
• Certain cheeses, including aged cheddar, Swiss and Monterey Jack, have been found to protect teeth from decay. Ask Dr. Gray about her published Research at the American Dental Association.
• An obscure Mexican plant, the Lippa dulcis, has been found to be about 1,000 times sweeter than table sugar, doesn’t cause tooth decay, and in the distant future, could serve as the source of a low-calorie sweetener.
• Not long ago, dentures were common wedding gifts in the Bristish Isles because may people expected to eventually lose all their teeth and expedited the process by having them extracted at an early age.
• About 60 different herbs commonly cited for treatment of dental problems in ancient Chinese medical books have indicated potential value in the prevention and treatment of tooth decay and gum disease and may one day be added to toothpaste and mouthwashes in this country.
• Every person has a set of teeth as unique as his or her fingerprints, and even the “dental fingerprints” of identical twins are different. Forensic Dentistry is an integral part of most CSI departments.
• American’s best-known author of western novels, Zane Gray, was a dentist before becoming a writer
• Jill St. John, Jack Klugman, Diana Ross, Carol Burnett and Cher have all worn braces as adults.
• There is a name for the soreness that results when you burn your mouth on melted mozzarella- it’s "pizza palate".
• Americans spent $322 billion on health care in 1982, and of that amount, dental care expenditures totaled $19.5 billion- only 6 percent of the nation’s total health care bill.
• Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the first United States community to fluoridate its public drinking water, in 1945.

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