In a sweetly sentimental gesture, my father saved all my baby teeth in a small box. When both my parents had passed away, when I was about 58, I came into possession of the box.
The teeth in the box were not whole - it was just a collection of tooth chips. Is that what usually happens?
I ask just because I’ve had a lifelong problem with my teeth cracking, and I’m wondering if I just have a biological predisposition to weak teeth. (FTR, I was adopted at age 3. My birth mom was stressed and a smoker while pregnant with me, and gawd only knows what care I received from age 0-3; I did apparently have a mild case of rickets while very young. But after I was adopted, I got plenty of calcium in my diet and had to drink 2-3 full glasses of milk every day, which I would think would mean my adult teeth - the ones that have given me grief over the years as they have cracked - would not be negatively affected by anything in my childhood.)
As our household’s designated Tooth Fairy, I too was surprised when nearly all the collected baby teeth broke in two – all by themselves – within a year or so.
When I was a teen, my father gave me his wisdom teeth, which had been pulled when he was in medical school, before I was born. I forget why. They were whole, but there were visible cracks on the side.
Dog teeth seem to be incredibly strong. My boyfriend’s dog finds … things … in the woods here, including old animal skulls (usually pigs, but sometimes it is hard to say - they could be dogs). She adores crunching up the jaws - so basically, she’s using her teeth to chew on other teeth. Eww.
I’m sure that the milk you drank after your adult teeth came in had some effect on their growth, but it’s interesting that you had your adult teeth from birth! So it’s very possible that nutritional issues before age 3 would have affected them.
I’ll leave this with a broken link since it’s somewhat creepy: htt ps://i.redd.it/0f2u3j7fy4x21.jpg
My mother, a few years ago, gave me three baby teeth of mine that she had apparently saved for decades. They were whole, although there were a lot fewer than the total number I lost, so there could be some survivorship bias going on there.
I was kind of taken aback because I was not expecting to receive my baby teeth so many years later, and I did not know how to respond. After sleeping on it, I realized the obvious course of action, and I gave my mom three quarters.
I’m confused and amused. What did I say that implied I had my adult teeth from birth? So that you don’t have to scroll back, here is the full text:
I was adopted at age 3. My birth mom was stressed and a smoker while pregnant with me, and gawd only knows what care I received from age 0-3; I did apparently have a mild case of rickets while very young. But after I was adopted, I got plenty of calcium in my diet and had to drink 2-3 full glasses of milk every day, which I would think would mean my adult teeth - the ones that have given me grief over the years as they have cracked - would not be negatively affected by anything in my childhood.
What I was trying to say was that from age 3 onward, I had plenty of calcium in my diet. Adult teeth erupt between ages 6 and 12 or so (not counting wisdom teeth, which in any case I don’t have), and so AFAIK there was nothing environmental in my childhood that would have caused my adult teeth to be weak.
I think if they dry out they are more likely to crack.
That said, like CairoCarol’s dog, I like to chew on bones with my teeth. I often chew up little bones like those in chicken wings, and sometimes I’ll chew up slightly larger bones like lamb ribs. My dentist doesn’t approve, but when I needed a crown (from decay, not from cracking) she gave me gold, because it’s a lot tougher and stands up to chewing on bones – unlike the more brittle porcelain crowns.
I’ve heard of people unwrapping saved baby teeth to find only powder. So, they can degrade to greater or lesser degrees. But I have no idea what makes some stay intact and others not.
My teeth seem to be prone to cracking, too, but so are my mom’s. I assumed it was genetic.
Actually, we all have our adult teeth from birth. Teeth, baby and adult, begin developing within the first trimester in utero and so biological mother’s health, nutrition and substance use can have lasting effects, in addition to genetic determinants.
You didn’t say anything to imply that, which is why I offered it as an interesting aside. While you’re right that they erupt between 6-12, they’re there from the beginning. I think about this whenever I look at my toddler.
It would not be completely definitive. I had 3 wisdom teeth that erupted, and one that didn’t show up on x-rays. Maybe 10 years later, I had an abscess at the location where the 4th one would have been. It turned out to be a quite large cyst in my jaw bone. I was told that sometimes a tooth bud or developing tooth will stop developing, and turn into a cyst like that. That’s what they thought mine was – the result of a wisdom tooth that stopped developing. I don’t know if it can happen and not wind up causing any problems, though. I’m also not sure why the cyst didn’t show up on the x-rays . . . I guess it was not exactly where a tooth would be.
