All human teeth are small in size, white in color and rich in calcium. In the mouth, teeth perform the function of cutting and grinding foods, which are then easily absorbed by the body. The number of teeth a person has largely depends on age. Typically, children have fewer teeth than adults.

Dental development in children begins in the prenatal period. However, these teeth do not become immediately visible until the child reaches 6 to 12 months of age. The process of development and growth of teeth becomes more frequent after the first teeth erupt, and already at the age of three years, most children have 20 teeth in the oral cavity. These are called baby teeth, which appear temporarily and, upon reaching the age of six, are replaced by permanent teeth, which have a longer lifespan.

Unlike baby teeth, of which there are normally 20 in the oral cavity, an adult has a total of 32 teeth, with erupted third molars. The ideal number of teeth that an adult should have is 32 teeth, of which eight incisors, four canines, eight premolars and twelve molars. Normally, you will not see any wisdom teeth until you are 17 years old.

If baby teeth fall out in a couple of years, why is it so important to take care of them?

• They leave space for permanent teeth
• They give the face its normal appearance
• They promote the development of clear speech
• They help achieve good nutrition
• They help give a healthy start to the development of permanent teeth.

An adult has 28-32 teeth

How many teeth should an adult have?

An adult can normally have from 28 to 32 teeth in the oral cavity. What teeth these are and why we indicate different numbers, you will understand by looking at the table below.

Teeth	Description
Incisors	Incisors are teeth that are located at the front of the mouth in a central position. Each person has four incisors on the upper jaw and a similar number of incisors on the lower jaw. The main function of the incisors is to capture and cut food. The baby's first primary incisors erupt at 6 months. The permanent incisors replace the primary incisors at 6 years of age.
Fangs	Fangs are teeth with sharp edges. The main function of these teeth is to tear off particularly hard food, such as meat. The first primary canines usually erupt when the child reaches 20 months of age. Permanent canines in adults erupt between 9 and 12 years of age.
Premolars	Adults have eight premolars, four of them are located on one jaw (from different sides), and the remaining four are on the other jaw. These teeth perform the task of grinding food into smaller particles. The age at which premolars begin to erupt is between 10 and 11 years.
Molars	We have a total of eight molars, four on each jaw. The first and second molars appear at the ages of 6 and 13 respectively and perform the task of chewing the food we eat.
Third molars	The last teeth in the dentition are the third molars, which are also... They do not erupt from 17 to 25 years of age. In a large number of people, these teeth do not erupt at all. Wisdom teeth can cause severe pain during eruption and are a major cause of crowded teeth, leading to.

The wisdom tooth is the third and last molar on each side of the upper and lower jaw. They appear when a person is in their late teens or around age 25. Each person can have no more than 4 wisdom teeth!

Wisdom tooth on x-ray

The eruption of wisdom teeth is often associated with pain in the back of the jaw and difficulty chewing. Once you have a fully functional set of teeth in your mouth, you may wonder what are wisdom teeth for? The answer is quite simple. The function of wisdom teeth is the same as other teeth. They take part in the act of chewing and grinding food. When positioned correctly in the dentition, they can increase chewing efficiency. Unfortunately, third molars may not always be in the correct position, which is why tooth extraction surgery may be required to avoid possible complications.

Wisdom teeth removal is a common practice and common procedure throughout the world. There are many dental indications for surgical intervention: complicated, which cannot be treated therapeutically, dystopic position of the tooth and trauma to the soft tissues of the coronal part of the tooth, crowding of teeth (orthodontic indication).

Wisdom tooth extraction is a clinically proven process that aims to reduce pain, preserve facial shape while maintaining proper tooth alignment, and prevent infection.

At what age do teeth fall out in adults?

This question is individual for each person and depends on many factors, for example: heredity, etc. The table below shows the average number of permanent teeth among adults aged 20 to 64 years, broken down by individual characteristics.

Characteristic	Average number of permanent teeth
Age
20 to 34 years old	26
35 to 49 years old	25
50 to 64 years old	22
Floor
Man	25
Woman	24
Smoking history
Current smoker	23
Former smoker	25
Never smoked	25
Average	24 permanent teeth

Data source: National Health and Nutrition University has been an important source of information on oral health and dental care in the United States since the early 1970s.

The basis of the human skeleton is the bone apparatus. Almost all bones are protected by soft tissue. Precisely “almost”, since the exception is teeth. They are not covered with muscles, mucous membrane, or skin.

Fortunately for humans, teeth change only once during life. But that doesn't make it any less significant. The number of teeth in adulthood, their internal safety and appearance will also depend on compliance with hygiene standards.

There are differing opinions about how many teeth a healthy person who carefully monitors his health and, in particular, oral hygiene should have.

Everyone knows: “32 teeth is the norm!” What to do with the so-called? Are they included in this number? Or is this a nice addition to this kit?

How many teeth a healthy mouth should have depends not only on age, but also on individual physiological characteristics.

The third molars, located in front of the “eight”, have up to 5 roots, which can be tightly woven into a single, denser, stronger one. But wisdom teeth have up to 8 roots at once. This is explained by its location close to the pulp. The canals of such teeth can bifurcate, and sometimes several canals are found in one root. For this reason, when removing wisdom teeth, it is imperative to take a photo.

Only in this way will the doctor be able to determine the number of roots and canals of the molar.

Age characteristics

Teeth change throughout life. If in children they are weakly fixed, then in adults completely different processes are observed.

With age, teeth wear out, and an experienced dentist can quite accurately determine the patient’s age based on the degree of wear. Also, wear and tear depends on the texture of the food eaten and physiological characteristics.

Up to the age of 16, no signs of erasure are visible. But by the age of 20, a slight smoothness appears on the teeth, which is quite natural for this age.

Over the next ten years, the tubercles and sharp cutting edges are overgrown with a dentin coating - bone substance. At the age of 45, serious wear of the crown protrusions is already visible, and dentin appears in significant areas.

At the age of 60, both the tooth enamel and the crown are completely worn out. After 70 years, only the neck and roots remain. Although by this time most of the teeth fall out or are pulled out due to caries.

To summarize, a healthy person should have at least 28 teeth, this is already considered the norm. Depending on a number of nuances, by the age of 30, fourth molars may also erupt, thereby bringing their number to 32.

They are called dairy. They are temporary and function only up to a certain age: in the period from six to twelve years, they are gradually replaced by permanent ones. A total of 20 primary teeth appear: 8 incisors (front teeth used for biting), 4 and 8 molars (molars used for chewing food).

These teeth are almost no different in structure from permanent teeth, but have a more transparent, bluish or milky tint, which is why they got their name.

Permanent teeth

At the age of six years, the change of teeth begins: milk teeth gradually fall out, and permanent teeth grow in their place. There are more of them - normally a person has 32 teeth: in addition to the 20 listed incisors, canines and molars, 8 small molars or premolars and 4 additional molars or.

Wisdom teeth, unlike other teeth, appear much later, sometimes after the development of the body is completed. Previously, in the jaws of representatives of the species homo sapiens there was enough space for all the teeth laid down genetically. They grew at the right time and occupied the correct position in the dentition. But as man evolved, he changed his lifestyle and eating habits, his jaw became smaller, and there was not enough space for the last molars. This has led to some people experiencing these teeth growing late, with complications, occupying the wrong location, or not erupting at all. In some cases, they do not grow to the required size and remain under the gum, in others they are tilted to one side and also lie under the gum - then the person may not even know how many teeth he actually has.

There are people who do not have the rudiments of wisdom teeth, perhaps in the future this will be the norm.

Thus, a person typically has between 28 and 32 permanent teeth at birth. But this does not mean that this rule applies to everyone, since disturbances in the mechanism of formation of tooth buds always occur. Sometimes polyodontia or hyperodontia occurs - too many teeth: in this case, more than 20 milk teeth grow, and more than 32 permanent teeth. Extra teeth are usually located next to the upper incisors, forming another row, but they can appear in other places.

There is false polyodontia - when all the permanent teeth have already grown, and some milk teeth have not yet fallen out. But in this case, their position in the jaw is disrupted, and the dentition experiences deformation.

It is believed that an adult has 32 teeth. This statement even became part of sayings and proverbs - it’s not for nothing that the common phrase appeared: “Smile with all 32 teeth.” However, this fact is not entirely true: the answer to the question of how many teeth a person has is more complex.

Why do people need teeth?

Teeth are structures consisting of hard tissues that are especially durable and last for a long time. Teeth have several significant functions, depending on which they have different shapes and locations.

The main function of teeth is the primary mechanical processing of food. By chewing, we prepare food for better perception and digestion in the stomach. There are many “side”, but no less important functions. In particular, protective - protecting the immune system and preventing harmful bacteria from entering a healthy body from the outside. Another purpose is the correct pronunciation of sounds, which is partly why evolution determined the appearance of baby teeth - without them, a child will not be able to learn to pronounce certain sounds correctly.

How many teeth do children and teenagers have?

A person has two sets of teeth throughout his life. The baby's first teeth begin to emerge at approximately 6 months of age. Because they fall out over time, children's teeth are usually called baby teeth or temporary teeth. A child grows only 20 baby teeth: 10 on each jaw. These teeth are similar to permanent teeth, but smaller in size, weaker and have a whitish-bluish tint (which is how they got their name).

How many teeth should a person have as a child? The approximate formula used by dentists is as follows: you need to subtract 4 from the age (number of months) of the child. Thus, in a year there should be 8 milk teeth, in a year and a half - 14. All 20 teeth usually erupt by 2 years, formation ends around 3 years.

The main function of primary teeth is to create space for the growth of permanent teeth. In addition, dentists advise immediately accustoming your child to caring for baby teeth - this will be excellent training before the appearance of “adult” permanent teeth.

The loss of temporary teeth and the appearance of permanent teeth begins in children aged 5-6 years. The process of replacing them with permanent ones occurs over a different period of time for everyone, but on average lasts until adolescence (approximately 12-14 years).

Children over 12-14 years old have 28 teeth, and this number, in fact, is the answer to the question of how many teeth a person has. Another 4 “lost” ones are the third molars, better known as wisdom teeth. Their growth can continue up to 30 years, and sometimes it does not happen at all - it all depends on the individual anatomical characteristics of the jaw.

Adult teeth

A “complete set” of teeth for a healthy person includes 32 teeth: 4 canines, 8 incisors, 8 small molars, 12 large molars.

• Lower and upper central incisors. They are called “units” and are located in the bottom and top rows, have 1-2 channels and 1 root. These are the 4 most front teeth of a person.
• Lower and upper lateral incisors. "Twos." They are located in front of the fangs, 2 on each jaw. The function of the incisors (both central and lateral) is to capture and bite food.
• Fangs. 4 cone-shaped teeth, 2 on each jaw, each with 1 canal and 1 root. Designed for tearing and holding food.
• Premolars. Fours and fives are the first and second premolars, the teeth located immediately behind the canines. A person has 4 of them on each jaw, the upper ones have 2 roots. Used for grinding food.
• Molars. They may have several roots and canals; the roots of third molars (wisdom teeth) often grow together into one. Just like premolars, the function of these teeth is to grind food.

It is worth considering that a complete set of 32 teeth for a person 30 years old and older is an increasingly rare phenomenon today. Even if third molars grow in, by this age many people have them or other teeth removed due to tooth decay and other diseases of the teeth and gums. Third molars are generally considered problematic and are often removed by dentists due to discomfort, abnormal growth, or misalignment of other teeth. The very process of growth and eruption of wisdom teeth often gives very painful sensations: the gums can hurt and swell until the body temperature rises.

Evolution does not stand still, and scientists express the opinion that soon 26-28 teeth will be the norm for humans. This will happen due to the habit of soft food, because the main function of teeth is chewing. “As unnecessary,” the second incisors are the first to be reduced, followed by the molars. To avoid this, you need to give the dental system sufficient stress in the form of chewing plant roughage. After all, for example, in ancient times, when the human diet included mainly coarse, difficult-to-chew food, a person had as many as 44 teeth.

But today we can say with confidence that the question “How many teeth does a person have?” There is a clear answer: the norm for a healthy person is to have from 28 to 32 teeth, depending on the presence of wisdom teeth.

Elements of the jaw row are special bone formations in the oral cavity of any living creature. They are arranged in the form of arcs, one above the other. This is an important organ in the human body. They are the first to carry out the food processing process.

Units of the jaw apparatus that are smooth and have a pleasant snow-white hue also perform an aesthetic function. A beautiful smile attracts people and helps them achieve success in various fields of activity.

Dentists say that every person has 32 teeth. They're not lying, of course. But why then do some count only 28?

The fact is that recently many people are getting rid of what they consider unnecessary eights. Due to the fact that people began to eat more soft foods, they began to decrease and not grow in everyone. Sometimes not all 4 eights grow.

More recently, scientists were able to find out that our ancestors had 44 elements of the jaw row. If humanity doesn't switch to more solid foods, our jaws will continue to thin out!

Each of the canines, incisors and molars has its own unique shape, each has its own purpose. It’s not for nothing that dentists say that 32 is the norm.

Unfortunately, today not everyone can boast of a complete set in their own mouth. According to scientists, these bone organs of the oral cavity are necessary for a person not only for biting, holding and chewing food in the mouth, but also for correctly pronouncing sounds.

This is why all 32 units are so important.

There are such varieties:

1. Incisors– very sharp, involved in the process of biting food (normally a person should have 8 incisors).
2. Fangs– located next to the incisors, they help tear food (normally a person should have 4 fangs).
3. Indigenous (small)– I participate in the process of grinding food; they can also tear food apart. Usually they have 1 or 2 roots.
4. Indigenous (large), also called molars - depending on their location, they have 2 or 3 roots. A person should have 20 small and large molars, including wisdom teeth. Indigenous people are considered permanent. The chewing surface is a fissure, usually has 2 tubercles for small ones, and 2-5 for large molars.

After changing the milk series to the permanent one, there should be 28 units in the human oral cavity.

The remaining 4 “eights” appear at the age of 18-25 years, but can also appear later. Without a place prepared by the milk nearby, the wisdom tooth has to come out on its own. Sometimes this is a very long and painful process. And in general, not everyone gets wisdom teeth.

If you have a small jaw, there simply won't be enough room for them. Many don't even notice their absence. You may ask, why are they needed at all? As they say, in nature everything is for a reason.

Previously, scientists believed that organs such as tonsils, appendix, hymen were not needed by the body at all. Later it turned out that they all have a protective function, preventing harmful bacteria from entering the body. These organs support our immune system.

Therefore, the entire set of jaw apparatus is necessary for a person in full, without exception.

Considering the fact that over time, some elements fall out due to fillings or caries, “eights” become assistants in prosthetics, providing support for adjacent units of the jaw row. If they don't bother you, it's better not to tear them out. They will come in handy in your old age.

For happy people, wisdom teeth do not cause discomfort. But there are cases when they cause terrible pain. In this situation, the dentist will take an x-ray and, based on what he sees in the image, develop a plan for further measures to eliminate discomfort in the mouth. He will tell you what to do with it next - leave it or tear it out. Sometimes all it takes is making an incision in the gum to get rid of the pain.

If you do not pay attention to the pain, the growing element can grow sideways, bending the entire bite line.

Crooked molars or fangs are difficult to clean; food debris will accumulate on them, caries will develop, and as a result, the gums will become inflamed or an infectious disease will appear.

If the wisdom tooth has grown in such a position that it does not participate in the process of chewing food, it is better to remove it. It will not bring you any benefit, but it will cause harm in the form of caries, easily.

There are no special rules about at what age it is better to remove eights. Dentists recommend doing this at an early age (18 – 25) years, until the roots are fully formed. You will endure this procedure more easily.

Milk teeth, or, as they are also called, temporary teeth, are similar to permanent ones. The only thing is that they are smaller in size and a little weaker.

The name “dairy” itself appeared due to the fact that these elements have a shade of white-blue color, reminiscent of the color of fresh milk.

Between the roots of the baby teeth there are small rudiments of the molars. Both have the same number of roots.

Milk teeth begin to erupt in a child at six months and continue until 2.5 years. There can only be 20 primary teeth (8 incisors, 4 canines and 8 molars). From 40-45 days of intrauterine life, both milk and permanent teeth begin to develop.

Their development continues up to 5 years. Teeth, as a rule, erupt in the order in which they were formed.

The first teeth to emerge are those formed before 5 months of intrauterine development. These are the so-called temporary milk elements.

Teeth formed after the fifth month of intrauterine development and before the fifth year of life will be permanent.

The order of appearance of milk series units is as follows:

• Central incisors - from 6 to 8 months.
• Lateral incisors - from 8 to 12 months.
• First molars - from 12 to 16 months.
• Fangs - from 16 to 20 months.
• Second molars - from 20 to 30 months.

Changing a milk line to a permanent one usually takes from 6 to 8 years. First, the elements of the lower jaw are updated, then the upper. By the age of 14, the teeth are completely renewed, except for the eights.

For each person, the change from a milk line to a permanent one occurs differently, depending on individual characteristics. Place of residence, quality of drinking water, and type of diet are of great importance. Also important are past viral diseases and endocrine disorders associated with metabolic disorders.

As a rule, the process of changing teeth is painless.

The root of the baby tooth is gradually pushed out by the hard tissues of the permanent tooth. By the age of six, the child’s jaw becomes wider, and gaps appear between its individual elements. Permanent teeth are much larger in size.

If a child does not have spaces between his teeth, or they are insufficient, he should consult a dentist. Problems may arise when changing teeth.

When should you sound the alarm when changing teeth?

• The baby tooth has begun to loosen, interferes with eating, and causes pain.
• If inflammation starts from a loose tooth.
• The child complains of constant pain or itching.
• The baby tooth prevents the permanent tooth from erupting.
• The permanent tooth began to grow on top of the milk tooth.

As a result, permanent teeth may grow back damaged.

To avoid such troubles, teach your child to perform oral hygiene procedures with the required frequency and intensity from an early age. This will not only help maintain the condition of the jaw apparatus in good condition, but will also facilitate the process of changing the milk series to a permanent one.

In nature, dental anomalies in the growth of hard tissues of the oral cavity are quite common - non-standard shape, size, color and number of elements. This is a congenital or acquired disorder of individual units or the entire bite.

Various dental anomalies today occur in 50% of children and adolescents, and in 30% of adults. Any dental anomaly requires urgent therapeutic or even surgical intervention.

The bite may have supernumerary – impacted teeth. They are usually located in the thickness of the bone, due to the fact that they cannot cut through.

Such an anomaly can be the result of an inflammatory disease, premature removal of a primary incisor or canine, as well as incorrect position of the tooth germ.

The supernumerary tooth tries to erupt, even if there is no longer room for it. It puts pressure on the roots and nerves of other nearby elements. Partially erupting can cause inflammation. The most famous supernumerary tooth is the wisdom tooth.

There are also anomalies known as hypodontia and hyperdontia.

The first involves a decrease in the number of units of the jaw apparatus due to problems with their development. The second means an increase in their number (more than 20 dairy, more than 32 indigenous).

Hyperdontia occurs in only 2% of the inhabitants of our planet.

So to speak, “extra” teeth are distinguished by their small size and conical shape. Dentists recommend removing these extra elements due to possible deformation.

Thanks to our constantly developing medicine, today it is possible to easily solve any anomaly in the oral cavity. To begin with, you not only need to remember about basic daily hygiene, but also visit a qualified dentist on time. As they say, it is better to prevent a problem than to treat it.