How many teeth do you have and should a person have?


Question:
Count your pearls please.

Answers:
I am a dentist.

Textbook human dentition is as follows:

Children above the age of two should have 20 teeth, all of which are deciduous (i.e. they will be lost).

Children above the age of six should have 24 teeth: all 20 of their deciduous teeth and four adult first molars

Adults should have 32 teeth.

Of course, mother nature has never hesitated to deviate from our expectations! Any adult tooth can be congenitally missing--the most common congenitally missing teeth being one or all of the wisdom teeth, followed by maxillary lateral incisors. Often, I see adult premolars missing, and thus there are many adults walking around with one or two deciduous molars that were never forced out by premolars.

Contrastingly, extra teeth are also not uncommon. These are referred to as "supernumerary teeth". Occasionally, I see extra maxillary wisdom teeth, however, they are generally quite small. There can be extra teeth pretty-much anywhere. In fact, there are some syndromes such as cleidocranial dysplasia where oligodontia (multiple supernumerary teeth) is a trait.

Mother nature can be tricky!

Other Answers:
I have 30 teeth. The average person matures and developes 32 teeth. There are developmental variations, such as, the odd person with 33 teeth. More commonly teeth are missing in development, but it is relatively rare.

However, due to evolutionary baggage and the highly processed food of the modern diet, our jaws rarely grow enough to accomadate all 32. The lack of jaw growth can lead to tooth impaction (ie. the inability of the tooth to erupt) Wisdom teeth are typically removed.

i have 25

listen to the dentist, they are exactly right in every way

Most people have 32 teeth. There are some people that have more and some that have less. The average is 32. I have 31. I had 1 pulled at 17.



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