Why sharks never get cavities - The surprising secret behind their perfect teeth
Sharks’ teeth are an incredible piece of evolutionary development that helps them never have to worry about visiting a dentist.
Dental health is important for every creature in the animal kingdom. Thanks to our sugary diet human teeth often form cavities, but we can go to a dentist to patch up our precious set of permanent teeth, one of the two sets we get in life.
On the other hand, elephants have six sets of molars, each set lasting about ten years. But when the last one that comes off the “conveyor belt” wears out, that’s it, no more, and it’s the leading cause of death for the majestic giants.
Sharks though benefit from a couple incredible pieces of evolutionary development that allows them to never have to worry about the health of their teeth and which keeps them perfectly pearly white.
The secret behind sharks’ perfect pearly whites
Like elephants, sharks have a conveyor belt of teeth. However, they have an endless supply and a new tooth or row of teeth slides into place every week or two. In a shark’s lifetime there are some species that may go through around 30,000 teeth.
This is thanks to special compartments of stem cells in the epithelial lining of a shark’s mouth which give them an endless supply of chompers. Scientists are researching this to see if we could use this handy trick to regrow our own teeth some day in the future.
#DYK? Unlike humans, who replace our “baby” teeth just once, sharks replace their chompers every few weeks, over and over, for their entire lives. In fact, shark teeth are among the most common vertebrate fossils found! pic.twitter.com/qcRA3QtCQh
— American Museum of Natural History (@AMNH) August 29, 2023
Besides that, sharks’ teeth have another feature that makes the development of cavities nearly impossible. Shark teeth are very similar to human teeth in that they are made up of a hard mineral tissue called dentine that is encased in an even harder enamel.
However, shark teeth enamel is comprised entirely of a fluoride compound, the mineral fluorapatite. Human teeth contain hydroxyapatite, an inorganic compound found in bones, and to help keep cavities from forming we must use toothpaste and mouthwashes with fluoride, we even put it in the water supply in many places to improve people’s dental health.
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