Health and Medicine
PUBLISHED
If you look after your teeth well and brush them regularly (yes, I am talking largely to my children here), you can expect to enjoy 32 teeth well into adulthood, or slightly fewer if you need to get your wisdom teeth removed.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.But there are people out there who get more than their fair share of teeth. If the extra chompers aren't causing any issues, it is possible that people can be hiding a few extra without even realizing it. This happened to the current Guinness World Record holder, who claims the title of the "man with the most teeth in the world".
Prathab Muniandy, a 42-year-old dad of one, didn't notice that he had any extra teeth until a family meal in 2021.
“We counted them together and found that I had 38 teeth at the time," Muniandy told the Guinness Book of World Records. "A dental X-ray later showed that there were four more teeth that had yet to erupt. By early 2023, I realized that I had a total of 42 teeth. Fortunately, most of the teeth grew straight and without any complications.”
The extra teeth are a little more effort to maintain, but generally, he finds people don't notice the supernumerary teeth until he points out that he has 10 more teeth than the average person.
"It feels amazing and quite special to know that I hold a world record for having the most teeth," he added.
Known as hyperdontia, an excess of teeth occurs in around 0.1 to 3.8 percent of people. It is generally caused by genetics or disruption of the dental lamina, the cells from which teeth form, during development, dentist Ollie Jupes explains to IFLScience. Assuming the person is comfortable, the extra teeth can generally be left alone.
"If extra teeth are not causing any problem, there’s no reason why the teeth can’t just be monitored, obviously straightening with braces if it disrupts aesthetics," Jupes told IFLScience.
"The problem is if it prevents good cleaning or stagnation, and makes the patient more prone to decay or gum disease. The other thing is it can cause jaw dysfunction if it stops the teeth closing on both sides of the jaw simultaneously."
Though Muniandy has been awarded the current male record, it should be noted that a case report from 2011 documents an 11-year-old girl who was found to have a total of 81 teeth: 18 deciduous, 32 permanent, and a whopping 31 supernumerary, or excess teeth (yes, you can see x-rays of them in the report). In this patient, it is likely that many of the extra teeth, the result of a genetic disorder, would need to be removed. This could be tricky.
"With so many supernumerary teeth, dental extractions should be carefully scheduled not to jeopardize the osseous integrity of the maxilla and the mandible," the case report explained. "There is no definite morphologic differentiation between supernumerary and permanent teeth. Most nonerupted teeth show alterations of form, making it impracticable to position them in the dental arches as part of the objectives of the orthodontic treatment."
While this case appears more extensive, the girl had not noticed the extra teeth either, but had gone to the dentist to have root fragments removed after they were left behind when a baby tooth fell out.
Perhaps you should have a quick count of your teeth, too.
