To ask how many teeth you have?

[hummingbird100]

I've got 28 teeth. My wisdom teeth came through at age 18-ish, then I have 3 more molars (on each side top and bottom), then a canine, then 2 incisors at the front. Totalling 28. But I've just read that adults generally have 32. Why am I missing some teeth? A diagram shows 4 molars, not 3. I have no gaps and have never had any teeth removed!

[GreatFuckability]

hummingbird my eldest daughters canines have never come through as they are impacted in her jaw. could be you've something like that.

[CharleyDavidson]

26. 
    

Only 3 of my wisdom teeth came through, not sure what happened to the last one.

I had a couple of teeth removed as a child before having a brace fitted. And was told at the time that there was a tooth or two that just wasn't in my jaw waiting to come through at all.

And I had one removed 2 years ago due to a lot of pain. After it was removed it was found that the tooth wasn't the cause of the pain after all oh no, not bitter, not me!

[BestZebbie]

hummingbird -
Each quarter of your mouth as an adult has:
2 incisors
1 canine
2 premolars
3 molars (the third one is your wisdom tooth, see below)
2 + 1 + 2 + 3 = 8.
8 x 4 = 32 teeth in total.
Some people don't grow wisdom teeth at all, or they grow them inside the jaw but then some or all of them never come through into the mouth. As a species we are in the process of losing pairs of teeth as our faces get flatter. Unfortunately this means we are also in an awkward stage where lots of individuals get half-erupted and then infected teeth, or get more teeth than they really have room for and buckle the tooth rows.

[CharleyDavidson]

My friend has 4 baby teeth still, at the age of 40 as she doesn't have the adult teeth to push them out.

And a boy I have taught had no adult teeth formed in his head, so is stuck with his baby teeth for life or until he has them removed and replaced with implants as they do look a bit small and gappy due to being baby teeth. Poor lad.

[Katarzyna79]

sweary you sound like me I had loads out too. Some the dentist took out whilst I was awake at least 4, and another 4 or 5 in the hospital whilst I was knocked out . Came out looking like I had had a few rounds with Chris Eubank lool

I also needed braces. my milk teeth wouldn't budge. Now my son 9 and oldest girl 8 look like they have same issue. The dentist said its a good thing in a way because the adult teeth will be saved from corrosion compared with people who have theirs come up earlier ;)

[SuperCee7]

32. My mouth is very over crowded. I need some removing, I don't know why my dentist didn't when I was a child. I dread the thought now

[FadedRed]

26 teeth, four removed for orthodontic treatment and upper wisdoms lost.
You should have 32. 2 incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars and 3 molars including
the wisdom teeth on each quadrant of your upper and lower jaws (8x4= 32).
Sometimes some people have one or more permanent teeth that just aren't there at all or fail to erupt.

[Katarzyna79]

bestzebbie i thght u get 4 wisdom teeth? 2 on each side? I had one removed because the dentist said it was looking swollen I would have left it, he suggested better to remove it. So ive got to expect 3 more of the blighters. I don't find them that painful to be honest after all the teeth ive had removed.

[BestZebbie]

To actually answer your question, I have approx 31.5 teeth:

28 normal adult teeth, including two wisdom teeth = 28
2 wisdom teeth which are each only half through = 0.5 + 0.5 = 1
2 second molars that each have 5 cusps instead of 4 (variation in this is also pretty common, and the distribution of it can vary by ethnic group) = 1.25 + 1.25 = 2.5

:-)

[FadedRed]

Cross post with BestZebbie I'm soooo slow at typing

[BestZebbie]

Katarzyna: You are right, you do get 4 wisdom teeth, one on each side.....
one on the top left
one on the bottom left
one on the top right
one on the bottom right

(if you got two in each quarter of the mouth, you'd get 8 wisdom teeth in all)

[Andro]

32, I'm the only one in my friendship group who's wisdom teeth didn't need removing...they were not pleasant when they were coming through though and they came early!

[BestZebbie]

Katarzyna: You are right, you do get 4 wisdom teeth, (arrgh two) on each side.....

[BikeGeek]

28 in my mouth, and 4 in a pot on a desk in the study (wisdom teeth)

[Hrafnkel]

I had heavy sedation to have my last two wisdom teeth out. I'd recommend it. I remember coming to for about a minute and chatting - or trying to, as the dentist's hands were in my mouth. Apparently I was the chattier patient he'd ever had.

[BikeGeek]

I actually had room for my wisdom teeth, they weren't removed due to lack of space, I now have big gummy gaps at the back.

But it baffles me that a friend has only 20 teeth (lots removed due to braces) with no gaps yet I don't really consider myself to have a big mouth or her a small one.

[dannydyerismydad]

24

All 4 wisdom teeth out, 3 removed for overcrowding and 1 still inside my head somewhere.

How have we evolved to have mouths too small for our teeth though?

[BestZebbie]

dannydyer: iirc the selection pressure on humans is to have more vertical, flat faces, with the nose sticking out but the mouth tucked under it (eg: not a muzzle that involves the entire lower face like a dog or a horse). The reason is not entirely clear (although by now it might just be self-fulfilling, eg: humans look uniquely like that so it is sexy to humans) - angle of face varies a bit by ethnic group so there are an awful lot of racist theories muddying the waters rather.
If the trend is for faces to get flatter, then first of all faces get flatter, then the teeth cause problems and so there is then an new selection pressure on teeth to go away/get smaller/etc. This cycle can repeat, or for example there might come a point where the problem of having not enough teeth is worse than the sexiness of having flat faces, so the trend stops or reverses.

[autumnboys]

30. I had two back teeth out to make room before I had my brace fitted in my teens.

[Shelby1981]

I have 26. At the top two incisors came through behind the others in the roof of my mouth (so I had like two rows of teeth) so had them removed and one canine milk tooth as the adult tooth came through underneath but it never fell out. Then at the bottom had the first molar on each side removed before having braces as my teeth are too crowded, very small mouth lol! Also had one top wisdom tooth removed, not sure how many wisdom teeth ever came through.

[CakeNinja]

31, third wisdom tooth finally through in the last week at the grand age of 31! It's taken about a year for that one go properly emerge. Very bloody painful.
My last wisdom tooth won't come through as the X-ray from the dentist shows it lying sideways under the gum.

[BestZebbie]

dannydyer: We are in the process of active evolution in lots of areas, not just the 'all children in the future will have giant thumbs because they text a lot' type stories but long-term, gradual things.
Appendixes being lost are a common example (although it is also suggested that the appendix does do something useful so we have just shrunk it rather than actually losing it)
We are also very very slowly losing digits from the outside of the limb in - little fingers and little toes are becoming vestigal and hypothetically will eventually go away completely (this has already happened in loads of branches of mammals which are down to fewer than five digits already - you can tell which they lost by collecting individuals that are born with an 'extra' one/fossil record, and all mammals have lost several digits from that side of the hand/foot compared to really really early veretbrates).

[spankhurst]

30 as 2 wisdoms removed. I wouldn't worry, I know a 43 year old who still has a milk tooth!

[Shelby1981]

oops no I have 27! makes sense, 27 + 5 removed = 32

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

Ok, so I think the aliens took my lower level 1st or second premolars. The bastards. think the bastards got mine too