Amazing Teeth!

OK, only a dentist can get excited about teeth, right? Maybe. But we think teeth are really cool. So cool, in fact, that we spend our whole lives trying to get other people excited about their teeth too!

Have you ever thought about your teeth? Can you imagine living without them? We don't think so.

Everyone in the world starts out with the same teeth. Look in the mirror, and compare your teeth to these:

Depending on how old you are, you might be missing a few. Don't worry. They'll grow in.

Every tooth has a different job in your mouth.

The pointy ones on the top and bottom sides are called canines. Canine is a very old word that means "just like a dog." Dogs have long sharp teeth in the same place as your canine teeth (some people call them "fangs"). Canine teeth (yours, not your dog's) are good for really digging in to tough foods like steak. You can feel your sharp canines with the tip of your tongue. Feel how different they are from the rest of your teeth.

Incisors are the teeth in the very front of your mouth - on the top and the bottom. They're sharp and narrow, and good for biting into things like apples and carrots. Bite your front teeth together. Feel how well they "fit?" If you didn't have incisors, how could you take a bite of anything?

In the back of your mouth, top and bottom, are your molars and premolars. These are your chewing teeth. Molars and premolars are wide and flat, and not sharp at all. They crush up all the food into tiny pieces that you can swallow easily.

Now, do you want to know something REALLY cool? Lots of other animals have teeth that are almost exactly like yours. Monkeys, apes, orangutans and other primates have canines, incisors, molars, and premolars too!

Some teeth are very very old, like these dinosaur teeth. They're almost a million years old! Look how sharp they are! Do you think dinosaurs brushed after every meal?

This picture is an x-ray of dinosaur teeth. When you come in to the office, your dentist will x-ray your teeth too! The x-rays of human teeth look like this. Make sure to ask your dentist to see YOUR x-rays. They're cool!

What about tiger teeth? If you look in this tiger's mouth, can you see his incisors and canine teeth? Click the button below his picture to hear what a tiger with a toothache sounds like!

So, teeth are pretty cool after all, right? With all you know about teeth, you can imagine how important it is too take care of your own teeth. Maybe someday, you'll be a dentist too!