# is having one set of teeth possible and or rare? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 22, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960 "2011-07-22T07:57:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/1 "2011-07-22T07:57:44Z")
I was told at an early age that i only had one set of teeth by a dentist once i knocked out two of my teeth on purpose because i wanted to be visited by the tooth fairy like everyone else. I am now 33 and have recently told my new dentist this he made a funny noise and said that wasnt true and that i was just too young to remember losing my teeth, and when i insisted that the only teeth i have ever lost was the ones i knocked out and told him how the other dentist told me to stop doing that because i would not have replacements and how the gaps were still in my mouth but not as big he brushed it off as though it was not possible. Which dentist is correct and is it even possible to have only one set of teeth? if it is, how rare is that? and is there any way to prove or confirm this at my age? ps, at my age i still have never had a cavity (i brush when i remember and dont floss because of my sensitvity), is that a bye product of my possible “condition” ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/2 "2011-07-22T08:12:07Z")
Wait, it’s not clear to me what happened to the two teeth you knocked out. Do you have teeth now in their place or not? ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/3 "2011-07-22T08:37:50Z")
If you didn’t loose your other milk teeth (first teeth), then your teeth would be very very small compared to the size of your adult head and mouth. Is this the case? If you did loose your milk teeth, and your second set of adult teeth grew past as normal, you would have a full compliment of normal adult-sized teeth in an adult-sized mouth and head. Is this the case? Did the first dentist maybe mean that you’d already lost your milk teeth, and that the ones you knocked out were permanent ones? Or did he maybe mean that your milk teeth were not ready to fall out yet, and therefore you shouldn’t knock them? Milk teeth fall out by themselves because the body produces enzymes that dissolves the root, so without a hold the remaint falls out. If you pull a milk tooth that’s not ready yet, you can not only damage the gum, but also leave a hole for a long time until the adult tooth pushes through. During that time, the stress of eating and using the muscles can cause the remaining teeth to go out of aligmnent, which is not good, which is why dentists recommend against yanking or pulling milk teeth. An x-ray of you at that age should show whether you have permanent teeth underneath the first teeth waiting to rise up, or not. However, if you really had no permanent teeth, you would have found the too-small milk teeth very uncomfortable while growing up. If you had no milk teeth, the break-through of the much bigger second teeth into the smaller child’s head would have been uncomfortable. In both variants, I think your dentist would’ve written an article about your case for being unusual. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/4 "2011-07-22T09:00:26Z")
So, when you “knocked out” your own teeth, you had to use pliers, yes? Or a baseball bat to the face? Or fall off your bike and land on your teeth? It would have been a bloody and painful mess, unless it was your milk teeth which had already lost their roots and were nearly ready to come out anyway. I think your childhood memory is confused, as many people’s are. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/5 "2011-07-22T09:08:56Z")
Maybe your childhood dentist was just trying to dissuade you from hastening the departure of your milk teeth by pretending they were the only ones you would ever have. ---
**Author:** ![shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/6 "2011-07-22T09:11:39Z")
the first dentist xrayed me as a child and said i did not have perminate teeth at all, i knocked them out using a door knob and it was very painful and took me a while to do as they were not even a little lose when i started. no no teeth have ever grown in those two spots but my teeth are crooked in those areas where the remaining teeth tried to feel the whole. my teeth are smaller than most peoples and i constantly am told that i have the cutest little teeth they ever seen ---
**Author:** ![shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/7 "2011-07-22T09:20:34Z")
stag that is a possibility and a real one, thats one of the reason i want to know if its even possible for you to have one set of teeth, same statement for you sea, its interesting, but if its not true i hate to continue to tell the story. The problem with memories is that it is easy to mis remember. I’ve looked everywhere on the internet with no luck on the subject.i would love to know if there was anyway to prove or disprove it definitively, and as for the dentist publishing the case its possible he did if the case is in fact real and not a misunderstanding or an attempt at stopping self mutilation. it would have been published in the early 80’s or mid 80’s. But can you understand my fasination with finding out the trooth. on a side note i have a 5 year old daughter now who ( i know it can take up to 7 or 9 years old for a child to start losing teeth) has not lost any teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/8 "2011-07-22T09:22:31Z")
[Obligatory](http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF187-Way_Too_Much.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/9 "2011-07-22T09:25:52Z")
i would like to thank all for responding thus far every angle mentioned have been different things i have never even considered ---
**Author:** ![shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/10 "2011-07-22T09:27:51Z")
lol thank you dr strange love very funny comic strip but was there a post or response to go with it? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/11 "2011-07-22T09:40:25Z")
> [@shakespeare](#): > > lol thank you dr strange love very funny comic strip but was there a post or response to go with it? Nah, I had just never heard of anyone wanting the tooth fairy to visit them, and it reminded me of that comic. Well, kids are kids. About all I have to add is that I had the better part of _three_ sets of teeth as a kid. Actually, some of them are still in there, but they don’t seem to be causing problems. My mom says the oral surgeon came out of the room with “a handful of bloody teeth” and said it was “like a gold mine in there!” So I dunno, but if three is possible then maybe one is also. But despite my name, I’m not a doctor, so I couldn’t say one way or another. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/12 "2011-07-22T10:08:22Z")
I thought milk teeth were pretty rootless? In which case, most would start to become loose and drop out. Presumably your dentist would be able to tell from an xray? I still have one milk tooth (the adult replacement was removed by operation as it was growing horizontally, which means it never pushed out my milk tooth). The remaining milk tooth is distinctly wobbly compared to the others, as it has such shallow roots. Presumably at some stage it will drop out, although I’m 41 and it’s still hanging in there. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/13 "2011-07-22T11:17:29Z")
> [@shakespeare](#): > > the first dentist xrayed me as a child and said i did not have perminate teeth at all, Can you contact your first dentist and ask for a copy of the X-rays? (Depending on how long ago and the age of the dentist, he might have retired, but depending on laws might have been required to hand his old files over to a medical assoc. for safekeeping. > [@](#): > > i knocked them out using a door knob and it was very painful and took me a while to do as they were not even a little lose when i started. Which is a bad idea regardless of whether they’re milk teeth or permanent teeth. How old were you, and did no adult tell you that this is a bad idea? > [@](#): > > no no teeth have ever grown in those two spots but my teeth are crooked in those areas where the remaining teeth tried to feel the whole. my teeth are smaller than most peoples and i constantly am told that i have the cutest little teeth they ever seen You have no problems chewing and speaking with two crooked teeth and too-small teeth?? Or did you never get around / have enough money to get replacements for those two teeth, either crowns or implants? ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/14 "2011-07-22T11:25:28Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > I thought milk teeth were pretty rootless? In which case, most would start to become loose and drop out. Presumably your dentist would be able to tell from an xray? Not according to what I know - they have shorter roots because they are generally smaller; and once they fall out, they lack the root. But during the years they stay in there and are used for heavy-duty chewing, they need a root to stay in! The milk-teeth are broken through by the end of the 3rd year (for the back ones), but you start loosing them in your 7th-9th year, and you learn eating solid food at age 2-3, so they do some work. [Wikipedia](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milchz%C3%A4hne) as the quickest online reference supports this: > [@](#): > > Die Milchzähne haben genauso wie die bleibenden Zähne Zahnwurzeln. Die Milchschneide- und Eckzähne haben eine Wurzel, die Milchmolaren haben im Unterkiefer zwei und im Oberkiefer drei Wurzeln. Anomalien sind im Milchgebiss sehr selten. Beim Zahnwechsel mit dem dadurch bedingten normalen Verlust der Milchzähne werden die Milchzahnwurzeln durch die nachdrängenden bleibenden Zähne resorbiert (aufgelöst); die Milchzähne scheinen keine Wurzeln (gehabt) zu haben. > > The milkteeth have, just like the permanent teeth, roots. The milk incisors and edge teeth have one root, the milk molars have two roots in the lower jaw and three roots in the upper jaw. Anamolies in the milk teeth are very rare. When the teeth are changing and therefore, the milk teeth being lost, the roots of the milk teeth are resorbed (dissolved) by the pushing from below permanent teeth; the milk teeth appear to not have (had) roots. [Here is a schematic](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Primary_dentition.jpg/280px-Primary_dentition.jpg) on how the first and second teeth are arranged (an X-ray would look similar, but harder to read due to the shades of white and lack of colour.) ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/15 "2011-07-22T11:28:02Z")
> [@shakespeare](#): > > on a side note i have a 5 year old daughter now who ( i know it can take up to 7 or 9 years old for a child to start losing teeth) has not lost any teeth. Have you had your (second) or her dentist look at her teeth? Has an x-ray be made? Is she getting enough calcium? Second opinion from another dentist? And tell her not to knock any teeth out, and that no tooth fairy exists! (South Park did a hilarious take on tooth fairies once, too, but that’s a bit too much for age 5. Might be funny for you, though). ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/16 "2011-07-22T11:35:57Z")
[This](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milchz%C3%A4hne)might also be interesting: > [@](#): > > Der erste neue, bleibende Zahn ist normalerweise der erste Backenzahn. Er bricht in etwa im sechsten Lebensjahr hinter der Milchzahnreihe durch und wird deshalb auch 6-Jahr-Molar genannt. Erst danach werden die Milchzähne ersetzt. Zwischen dem sechsten und dem achten Lebensjahr verlieren die Kinder die mittleren Schneidezähne, dann die seitlichen. Zwischen dem 9. und dem 11. Lebensjahr werden die Eckzähne und die ersten Milchmahlzähne ersetzt, zuletzt bis etwa zum 13. Lebensjahr die zweiten Milchmahlzähne. Anschließend bricht dann noch der zweite Backenzahn (7-er) durch. > > The first new permanent tooth is usually the first molar. It breaks through about the 6th year of age behind the milk teeth and is therefore called 6-year-Molar. Only after that the milk teeth are replaced. Between the 6th and 8th year of life children loose the middle incisors, then the side ones. Between the 9th and 11th year of life the edge teeth and the first milk molars are replaced, and finally till about the 13th year the second milk molars. Finally the second molar (7er) breaks through [And](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dentition) > [@](#): > > Die ersten Molaren (6-er) brechen meist vor allen anderen bleibenden Zähnen durch; sie werden auch „6-Jahr-Molaren“ genannt. Weil sie in der Regel schon vor dem Verlust der Milchschneidezähne durchbrechen, werden sie von Laien oft als verspätete Milchzähne angesehen. Als solche werden sie bei der Zahnpflege oft vernachlässigt („die fallen ja doch aus“) und nehmen somit oft schon sehr früh Schaden. > > The first molars (6er) break through before all other permanent ones; they are also called 6-year-molars. **Because usually they break through before the loss of milk teeth, laypeople consider them as belated milk teeth. As such they are often neglected in care (“they will fall out anyway”) and often are damaged very early**. (Bolding mine) ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/17 "2011-07-22T11:42:18Z")
I know it’s possible for individual teeth. I have 2 lower bicuspids which are milk teeth (I am 35). The dentists tell me at some point they will give up the ghost and I will be left with gaps. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/18 "2011-07-22T13:58:44Z")
Yeah, I have two upper premolars that never fell out in childhood. One finally gave up the ghost in college, and the other fell out when I was 36 or 37. No ‘permanent’ replacements for them; just gaps. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/19 "2011-07-22T14:40:27Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > Maybe your childhood dentist was just trying to dissuade you from hastening the departure of your milk teeth by pretending they were the only ones you would ever have. It seems obvious to me that this is what’s going on. Imagine you’re the dentist, and you’ve got a little kid patient who is so excited about visits from the tooth fairy that he’s willing _to knock his own teeth with a door knob_. Wouldn’t you make up some bullshit to scare him into stopping? ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2011, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960/20 "2011-07-22T14:49:44Z")
TheKid had to have 5 of her milk teeth removed as they did not want to come out on their own, and her adult teeth were coming in. The roots on two bottom front teeth were an inch long. They had no intention of coming out on their own. Then again, she didn’t lose her first tooth until she was 9… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-having-one-set-of-teeth-possible-and-or-rare/589960.md?page=2)