The holidays are here. It is a time when many children are dreaming of sugar plums and presents under the tree. Written in 1944 by Donald Gardner, the lyrics of the song “All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” are about a child who would like to speak clearly and whistle but cannot due to missing teeth. He was a 2nd grade teacher that asked the students what they wanted for Christmas. He noticed that almost all of the children answered with a lisp due to at least one missing front tooth.
At Ponte Vedra Complete Dentistry, we are dedicated to creating dental education blogs in order to promote oral health and create a more educated community. Today we thought we would take a break and give some fun facts about dentistry, missing teeth, and the holidays. We hope you enjoy and have a safe and happy New Year!
- Did you know that the American College of Prosthodontics claims that 35 million Americans do not have any teeth at all? The Dallas Cowboys football stadium now holds over 105,000 people. Imagine three hundred and thirty two Dallas Cowboys football stadiums completely full of people and not a single tooth in the bunch!
- In March of 2000, a member of the Sicilian mafia named Vincenzo Curcio allegedly escaped from a Turin prison by sawing through the bars with a piece of dental floss. He is not the only man to escape from prison with floss but the others braided it together and used it for climbing rope. Can floss actually saw through prison bars? We don’t want to find out.
- Variations of the toothbrush have been used for many years so the exact history is a bit clouded. According to the unofficial history of the toothbrush, in 1780 William Addis in England invented the first quasi-modern toothbrush. What were the bristles made of? Swine hair was used as bristles. We sure have come a long way.
- Did you know that Paul Revere, Doc Holliday, and Thomas Welch (of Welch’s Grape Juice) were dentists. Dr. Welch only practiced until 1880. At that time we did not know the extent that sugar played a part in cavities and grape juice is loaded with sugar. We would love to have read his blogs if he knew!
- One hundred years ago, half of Americans were completely toothless. As I am writing this and you are reading it, that means statistically that one of us would be missing teeth.
- Over 3 million miles of dental floss are used every year in this continent. If we flossed as much as we should, the number would be over 21 million miles. That is enough to wrap around the world 844 times.
From Ponte Vedra Complete Dentistry, we wish you all a safe and happy holidays. We welcome questions and comments at any time. Feel free to contact us electronically or call us at (904)285-7711.