Unfortunately, when you lose adult teeth, you do not grow another set, which can lead to various dental health complications.
New research shows that regrowing teeth is possible. More studies and testing still need to be conducted, but this development could change dental care in the coming years.
The permanent teeth start to develop in the jaws at birth and continue after a child is born. By about 21 years, the average person has 32 permanent teeth, including 16 in the upper jaw and 16 in the lower jaw.
While this saying has become normalized in modern speech, the truth is that human teeth do not continue growing for all of one's life. What is true is that the teeth have a tendency to appear longer over the years. While teeth can appear longer, they are not actually growing in size.
People can expect that between the ages of 12 and 14 a child will have lost all of their baby teeth. These will have been replaced by a full set of adult teeth. A full set of adult teeth will amount to 32 teeth in total. This includes the wisdom teeth, which grow in at the back of the mouth.
Humans only get two sets of teeth in their lifetime: 20 primary (baby) teeth and 32 secondary (permanent) teeth. If you lose any of your secondary teeth, your teeth will not grow back a third time.
When a patient has a chipped tooth, it means that a small portion of their tooth is no longer there. Chipped teeth are one of the more common types of dental problems that general dentists deal with. However, chipped teeth do not grow back on any portion of a tooth and instead need to be repaired by a general dentist.
Seniors 65 years and older have an average of 20.7 remaining teeth. Older seniors, Black and Hispanic seniors, current smokers, and those with lower incomes and less education have fewer remaining teeth.
Because older adults often have receding gums, cavities are more likely to develop at the root of the tooth. Dry mouth also causes bacteria to build up in the mouth more easily, leading to tooth decay. Oral cancer is more common in people older than age 45 and is twice as common in men as in women.
New teeth growing in adulthood is a condition known as hyperdontia. Hyperdontia can affect anyone, but it tends to run in families and is sometimes associated with certain genetic conditions. While hyperdontia isn't harmful in general, it can be an early sign of a more complicated problem that may require attention.
There are four final teeth yet to emerge at this point – your wisdom teeth. It is usually late-teens to early 20s when these teeth come through, however the timing is different for everyone: for some their wisdom teeth don't appear until late 20s, while others don't get them at all.
However, we do not have a stem cell that allows us to regrow our adult teeth. Scientists are researching ways of regrowing teeth in hopes that someday we may be able to replicate a process similar to alligators and regrow new adult human teeth.
At the age of 5, my son Jayan had a routine set of dental X-rays that showed a disturbing fact. The X-rays revealed that he possessed not one, not two, but three sets of front teeth. There were his baby teeth, his permanent teeth and in between, an extra set.
Although losing baby teeth is completely normal, losing adult teeth is not. Tooth loss is far from inevitable. While time and age can cause a decline in oral health, it is not age itself that causes tooth loss and other problems.
Today, three-quarters of people over 65 retain at least some of their natural teeth, but older people still suffer higher rates of gum disease, dental decay, oral cancer, mouth infections, and tooth loss.
As we get older, the outer hard tissue covering our teeth, called enamel, wears away and exposes the darker dentin beneath it. This can cause our teeth to appear more gray or yellow rather than white.
Gums that recede to expose the root surfaces of teeth is a common condition in adults over the age of 40. Many consider it to be just a sign of aging, and in some cases it is essentially that – often the result of wear and tear or years of aggressive tooth brushing.
Age-Related Wear & Tear
Your teeth are exposed to acidic foods and drinks every day, and over time our enamel naturally breaks down as a result. Essentially, the older we get, the more likely we are to experience a chipped tooth because our enamel simply isn't as strong anymore.
For a minor chip, we can sometimes simply polish the rough surface to make it smooth and cleanable at a cost of just a few tens of dollars. Fillings start at under $200, and for severely damaged teeth, crowns start at $975.
If your tooth cracks in half, call your dental office immediately to set up an appointment. Make sure to let them know, your tooth is cracked in half. A broken tooth is not something you should put off. It could get worse and become infected.
If you delay or even skip that appointment, the broken or chipped tooth may end up infected, causing irreversible damage. Another reason not to delay that trip to the dentist is that you may begin subconsciously avoiding the damaged tooth by chewing on the other side of your mouth.
Sometimes 2 or 3 months pass before the new tooth grows into the space. In the 6 years between ages 6 and 12, the 20 permanent teeth replace the 20 baby teeth. In addition, 8 other teeth grow in behind the baby teeth. At 6 years, the 4 first permanent molars start to grow in at the back of the mouth.
Unfortunately, if you're wondering if chipped teeth grow back or if a chipped tooth can repair itself, the answer is no. Sadly, teeth aren't a form of living tissue so it can't naturally regenerate, however, there are plenty of dental treatments and products available to remedy the issue.
If a person has one or more teeth that are additional to these typical sets of teeth, the person is said to have hyperdontia, and the additional teeth are known as supernumerary teeth. Note that it is possible for a person to have a supernumerary tooth without having more than 20 baby teeth or 32 permanent teeth.