Fun Dental Facts About Animals

We're testing your knowledge about dental trivia this month with our latest lobby contest at Appletree Orthodontics. As we grill you on dental trivia at the office, we thought it would be fun to share some dental facts with you on our blog...only these facts aren't about humans! Our team gathered some very interesting dental facts about animals. Keep reading to learn about some of your favorite wildlife's' dental facts.

Did you know...

• Dogs have 42 teeth, cats have 30 teeth, pigs have 44 teeth, and an armadillo has 104 teeth
• A snail's mouth is no larger than the head of a pin, but it can have over 25,000 teeth!
• The Blue Whale is the largest mammal on earth, but it eats only tiny shrimp because it has no teeth
• The Crocodile Bird flies into the open mouth of a crocodile and cleans the crocodile's teeth!
• Scientists count rings on a dolphin’s teeth to determine its age. The long-snouted spinner dolphin has as many as 252 teeth
• The Great Barracuda (wolf of the sea) can grow more than six feet long
• Groundhogs have four large incisor teeth for biting off vegetation and gnawing through roots. They also have 19 teeth for chewing
• A hippo can bite a small boat in half with its 20-inch-long teeth
• Insects’ teeth are called fangs or mandibles. Some insects also have teeth in their gizzard to help grind up food.
• Spiders have fangs, instead of teeth
• If a sheep’s teeth become too worn down, the sheep can die from starvation
• The bacteria-filled mouths of Komodo dragons can cause fatal infections in their victims
• Swallows, like all modern birds, have no teeth. They “chew” their food by swallowing tiny bits of gravel
• Turtles today do not have teeth
• Lions don’t chew their food because their jaws can’t move from side to side.

Data collected from a variety of sources online. We hope you have enjoyed these fun dental facts about animals from Appletree Orthodontics.