Despite interacting with them many times a day, we really don’t give all that much thought to our teeth, beyond the mechanical ritual of brushing and hopefully flossing. We hope that’ll change after reading this article. As we’ve told you before, George Washington didn’t actually have wooden teeth. However, he did have a very frightening set of dentures made of various metals and human and animal teeth, and he serves as a warning to any who don’t take care of their chompers. So grab the brush (and the floss too) and join us as we explore the fascinating world of teeth.

10 Bejeweled Teeth

The Mayans were an advanced civilization who regrettably are now most known for their supposed “prediction” of the end of the world. About 2,500 years ago, the Maya already had a very advanced understanding of teeth. While many people today try to whiten their teeth, for the Mayans that was not nearly enough. They would have their dentists use a primitive drill to decorate their teeth. Sometimes they would have parts of the tooth cut out or shaped to make it look more interesting. However, their most extreme modification was the bejeweling of teeth.

Some people, more often men, would have small holes made in their teeth that were fitted with gemstones to make their mouths look pretty. Researchers believe these finds show the Mayans were very skilled at dental work, as they could fit these jewels into the teeth without breaking them.

9 Perez The Mouse

In many parts of the world, when a child loses a tooth, the Tooth Fairy comes to collect it and leaves money in its place. However, in Hispanic countries they have a different tradition.

It all started in 1894 in Spain when the king’s little son lost his first tooth. The king, wishing to mark this special event, had a priest named Luis Coloma write a story for the kid about losing his tooth. The priest created the character “Ratoncito Perez,” also known as Perez the Mouse. The story was incredibly successful and is still beloved by Hispanic children. The English translation is here.

Interestingly, while many Hispanic countries use a similar mouse, his methods vary. For instance, the children in Argentina don’t put their teeth under their pillow, but in a glass of water. Apparently the little critter gets thirsty and these considerate children are putting a drink out for him. And in several countries he is known as the “magic mouse” instead of simply Perez.

8 Street Dentistry

Back before modern dental science, people still had problems with their teeth, but oftentimes there wasn’t anything approaching an actual dentist around. In the early 1800’s there wasn’t even such a thing as a specific dental profession, and there certainly wasn’t anything in the way of licensing. What this meant is that many people only went to the dentist if they had a toothache and extractions were common.

Because dentists didn’t exist yet, the job fell to those who had the appropriate tools. For this reason, blacksmiths and barbers performed the majority of dental work. Of course, as time went on and the dental profession truly began, actual dentists became irritated at barbers and others who continued to practice without serious training, and now full licensing requirements mean you can no longer go to the village blacksmith to get your tooth pulled.

7 Synthetically Grown Teeth

Researchers in China have been trying to grow synthetic teeth using stem cells, but as getting a hold of stem cells can be quite difficult, they came up with a (disgusting) solution: extracting them from human urine.
As these kinds of experiments cannot be legally performed on humans, they attempted to grow their tooth inside the mouth of a mouse.

The results showed some dental pulp and the beginnings of enamel, but some experts are skeptical. While the method does look to be a good step toward learning how to create fully working synthetic teeth, there are still some issues. For starters, urine isn’t a very good place to take stem cells from and may lead to a higher rate of contamination issues. And growing the teeth is only the first step. Once scientists figure that out, they still need to learn how to make your mouth fully accept the new teeth you’re putting in it.

6 Toothache Remedies

A toothache is an abominable experience to endure. Sometimes the pain gets so bad we will try anything to make it stop. Our ancestors were no different, but they didn’t have quite the dental knowledge we have today. So, as you might imagine, they came up with many creative ways to stop a toothache. Most of their methods had no more effect than a placebo can provide.

Some people believed that toothaches were caused by tiny worms that got in your teeth, and that you could remove them using complicated methods with seeds and wax. Another method involved saying a bunch of magic words and then exchanging bodily fluids with a frog in the form of saliva, which is about the most disgusting thing imaginable. One medical practitioner long ago suggested that someone irritate the hell out of the affected area with a nail and then, once it was all bloody, jam the nail into a wooden beam. He insisted this would work and that the “treated” tooth would never bother you again.

5 Germ Encrusted Toothbrush

You’ve probably heard the story about toothbrushes and toilets. The theory goes that even if it is several feet away, airborne germs from a toilet flush will infect your toothbrush with fecal bacteria. It sounds pretty scary, and many people now make sure to close the cover of their toilet before they flush.

The problem is that this attitude causes people to miss the real source of worrisome germs—the brush itself. Studies have found that your toilet is one of the cleaner parts of your house, but as your toothbrush spends a lot of time removing bacteria, it ends up coated with it. Now if you have a strong immune system you should be fine, but keeping your toothbrush away from the toilet is not an effective way to keep it hygienic. What the bacteria on your toothbrush really need in order to thrive is moisture.

So if you really want to avoid germs on your toothbrush, the best thing you can do is keep it dry.

4 Love Your Teeth Day

China, a rapidly industrializing nation with a massive population, faces the daunting challenge of making sure their 1.35 billion citizens are doing okay in terms of health and wellness. While most people take care of their bodies overall health, many put off any healthcare involving their teeth, due to fear of dentists, expense, and the fact that dental problems often take a long time to become truly unbearable. Cavities lead to infections that can eventually be life threatening, so proper oral hygiene is more than just a cosmetic issue.

To increase awareness of the importance of dental care, the Chinese government designated September 20 as national “Love Your Teeth Day.” This day involves promotions from dentists to attract clients, as well as information meant to encourage people to see a dentist and take better care to avoid cavities in the future. The campaign has been running for decades and has been successful in getting more people to the dentist.

3 Mountain Dew And Appalachian Teeth

In the Appalachian regions of the United States, many people are extremely poor and geographically isolated. Due to the price, taste, sugar, caffeine and probably other factors, Mountain Dew might as well be the official beverage of the Appalachians. It has become such an ingrained part of the culture that people of all ages drink it pretty much all the time, often instead of water. This has caused a serious dental crisis in the region. The constant sipping of Mountain Dew has rotted the done such damage to people’s teeth that it’s even given its name to the rotting brown mess it causes—“Mountain Dew Mouth.”

Politicians have suggested trying to curb the problem by banning people from buying soda with food stamps. This seems like an unlikely solution as people are probably going to find another way to buy Mountain Dew if they are addicted to it. Perhaps the Appalachians need their own Love Your Teeth Day.

2 The First Brushes And Toothpaste

While we haven’t always had the fancy electrified gizmos of today, our species has been trying to keep our teeth nice and clean for quite a long time. Evidence has been found that as far back as Ancient Egypt people were using primitive tools made from twigs to brush their teeth. Many countries still use twigs from trees with antibacterial properties, such as cinnamon and neem, and they have been found to be just as effective as modern toothbrushes.

The first object closer to an actual toothbrush was invented by the Chinese. The handle was made of bamboo and it had boar bristles for cleaning teeth. As for toothpaste, it’s been a long journey to the minty fresh chemical concoctions that we slather over our pearly whites today. When pastes for the purpose of tooth cleaning were first being invented, the ingredients were nothing short of nasty. People would use mixtures comprised of ash, burnt eggshells, crushed bones and all manner of gross stuff that you don’t want in your mouth. And you thought brushing your teeth nowadays was a chore!

1 Proper Dental Hygiene

Many people assume you should brush your teeth right after eating, as that is when you have the most buildup on your teeth. However, it’s also when you have the highest amount of acid in your saliva, which, when combined with the abrasions of brushing, can actually assist in wearing away the enamel of your teeth. One dentist suggests rinsing your mouth out with water after eating to restore the pH balance and then brush about a half hour later.

Dentists also insist that no matter how well we brush, if we aren’t flossing we aren’t doing it right. Unfortunately, many people rarely floss, but it is actually even more important than brushing. It gets food that’s caught between the teeth that you can’t get with a brush, and protects your gums much more effectively. When asked whether you really have to floss your teeth, most dentists will reply “Only the ones you want to keep.”

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Forensic science has evolved by leaps and bounds in the past couple of centuries. What began as hearsay and finger-pointing has evolved into a complex tapestry of evidence gathered from DNA, audio and video footage, data-mining, and intricate physical sciences. One type of the latter that has proven useful time and again is forensic dentistry. Although one facet of bite mark analysis has fallen out of favor in general forensic use and polarized the legal community, other facets such as dental DNA fingerprinting, forensic age estimation from teeth, and post-mortem victim identification from teeth have proven critically useful in cases.

Teeth are handy tools for forensic scientists because enamel- the shiny, white layer covering the tooth- is the hardest substance in the human body, harder even than bone. While criminals may go to great lengths to dismember and destroy bodies, teeth are often the body’s last holdout, and therefore tend to leave valuable evidence behind. It’s no surprise that teeth have helped criminal investigators and prosecutors ascertain the truth again and again. And sometimes, they’ve hindered the process, as well. Here are ten cases where, for better or worse, human teeth have made all the difference in criminal cases.

10 Aggrippina and Lollia Paulina’s Golden Teeth

The case of Lollia Paulina is commonly referred to as the first use of forensic dentistry to identify a body. Some even claim it’s the first use of forensic science in general. Either way, human teeth played a big role in its resolution. The short version is this:

Roman noblewoman Agrippina the Younger sought to marry the emperor Claudius but had a rival in fellow noble Lollia Paulina. Agrippina won their contest and married the emperor but was not forgiving of Lollia. Agrippina had Lollia accused of sorcery, convicted, exiled, her property seized, and even ordered Lollia to commit suicide. As proof of the suicide, a guard brought Lollia’s severed head back to Agrippina, but its features had been distorted and marred by the death, dismemberment, and travel. To identify the body, Agrippina was forced to rely on forensic dentistry. She knew Lollia had previously had her rotten teeth partially replaced with gold. Agrippina’s suspicions were confirmed by opening the head’s mouth. This act is the alleged first use of teeth to identify a body.

9 Reverend George Burroughs

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 are a dark and twisted reflection of early American justice. Similarly, they include a dark and twisted use of teeth in criminal prosecution. Among many other innocents, Reverend George Burroughs was accused of witchcraft and cavorting with the devil. His accusers, in reality just personal enemies with grudges, brought forth many pieces of alleged evidence against Burroughs.

One was a bite mark on a young victim that he was said to have made in a fiendish attack. His teeth were compared against the victim’s arm visually, and this was enough to have Burroughs convicted and hanged. He would later be posthumously exonerated, but his trial marked the first time in the (eventual) U.S. that bite evidence was used to help ‘solve’ a case.

8 Jesse Timmendequas and Megan’s Law

Today, every state in the U.S. benefits from Megan’s Law (which is one federal law and many state laws), making sex offender information, including names, faces, and addresses, available to the public. As its name implies, the law stems back to one case involving a young girl named Megan Kanka.

Megan was raped and murdered by her neighbor, a man named Jesse Timmendequas. Luckily, Timmendequas was caught and put on trial. One of the key pieces of evidence that helped convict him (and there were many) was a bite mark that Megan had left on Timmendequas’s hand as she bravely fought back. Again, teeth played a role in creating our modern system of child protection legislation.

7 Thomas Maupin’s Dentures

In 2001, a young woman (left anonymous) was walking down an empty stretch of road in Memphis, Tennessee, when she was assaulted. An unknown man stabbed her, raped her, and fled. Luckily, the woman survived, reported the crime, and the police collected evidence at the scene. Sadly, the man went unidentified.

That is, until ten years later. One strange piece of evidence collected at the scene was a pair of dentures. For whatever reason, they had initially been overlooked, but when reexamined all those years later, it turns out that they belonged to the attacker. The attacker had written his name inside the dentures. This allowed police to find the attacker, Thomas Maupin, and convict him of his crime. Though it took frustratingly long, at least the (fake) teeth came through.

6 Fredrik Fasting Torgersen

The case of Norwegian man Fredrik Fasting Torgersen is one of the more controversial cases in modern history. It serves as a stark reminder that bite mark analysis can sometimes be a flawed and misleading piece of evidence.

Torgersen was convicted of the rape and murder of a young girl in 1958, despite very little evidence that linked him to the victim, established motive, or placed him at the crime scene. Perhaps the single biggest piece of evidence for the defense was from a so-called expert witness who claimed that a bite mark found on the breast of the victim “with full certainty pointed to Torgersen as the murderer.”

The bite mark, and the use of bite marks in general, has been called into question in the years since. Torgersen was sentenced to life in prison based on almost nothing but a possibly inconclusive bite mark. Luckily, he was released after 16 years. Still, many members of the Norwegian community, including several high-profile scientists and lawyers, have protested the case’s apparent miscarriage of justice in the 60 years since.

5 Bundy’s Big Bite

Ted Bundy, the charismatic killer, is one of the most famous serial killers in history. Bundy confessed to murdering 30 people during the 1970s. He also admitted to kidnapping and raping many more victims. Bundy was clever and left little evidence behind for investigators to use against him.

The case against Bundy took years to build, and his trial took years more. Although we’ve already discussed the relative inconclusiveness of bite mark analysis, it proved crucial in helping to put Bundy away. During one of Bundy’s more daring sprees, he attacked several sorority members, leaving a deep bite on the left buttock of one of the women. Forensic odontologists Richard Souviron and Lowell Levine made casts of Bundy’s teeth and matched them to the victim’s bite mark, helping seal the case against the monstrous Bundy and end his reign of terror.

4 Sharon Carr’s Cheetos Teeth

In early 2001, a woman called 911 when she heard the sounds of an intruder in her house. The woman was alone with her two kids and worried for their safety. After the intruder spent some time in the home, they noticed that it was occupied and fled through an open window. When police arrived, they confirmed that the intruder was gone, though they had left behind evidence.

Evidence included a water bottle and an empty bag of Cheetos. Police believe the intruder left the items behind as they fled through the window. While searching the property, police found the intruder, Sharon Carr, hiding in nearby bushes. Police were able to confirm Carr was the intruder because of the fresh Cheetos dust covering her teeth. Another win for tooth-based evidence. A small, weird win, but a win nonetheless.

3 Ray Krone Overturned

The 1992 conviction of Ray Krone for murder and subsequent labeling as the Snaggletooth Killer is one of the most famous examples of mishandling of evidence, wrongful conviction, and unreliability of bite mark analysis as evidence.

Like Fredrik Fasting Torgersen, there was little evidence against Krone, aside from an expert witness who claimed that Krone’s bite pattern matched bites found on the victim’s body. Unlike Torgersen, Krone was at least lucky enough to be exonerated through DNA evidence, which also identified the real killer: a repeat sexual offender named Kenneth Phillips. Krone has since worked with the Innocence Project and campaigned against the death penalty, in part because newly available DNA evidence is necessary to rule out potentially incorrect convictions, just as it did for him.

2 John Wayne Gacy

Like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy is one of the most famous serial killers in history, remembered for both the brutality and scope of his crimes, as well as the clown persona he adopted, which altogether earned him the moniker of Killer Clown. Gacy killed at least 33 young men, many of them raped and tortured.

The trouble was in finding the bodies of Gacy’s many victims and then positively identifying them. Police recovered twenty-six victims from the crawlspace of Gacy’s home. Dental records provided twenty-three of their identities. In the many years since multiple other victims of Gacy’s have been found, most in the Des Plaines River, and many of them have been identified via dental DNA.

1 Josef Mengele Identified

Josef Mengele is one of the evilest human beings in history. Thanks to his teeth, we can rest assured of his death. As a high-ranking officer of the Nazi SS, Mengele led a program of inhumane medical experimentation on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp, earning him the nickname the Angel of Death. When it became clear that he, alongside his fellow Nazis and allied fascists, had lost the war they had begun, Mengele fled to Argentina to begin a new life in hiding.

He continued his life on the run, fleeing to Paraguay, then Brazil, always assuming new identities, until 1979, when he suffered a stroke while swimming and drowned. After decades of searching for the missing monster, Mengele was finally found, though only as a corpse under a different name. It was up to Brazilian and American dentists to prove his true identity. Comparing x-rays taken of the corpse’s skull to those taken by a Brazilian dentist who had treated Mengele in the years before his death, American dental scientist Lowell J. Levine was able to say that the remains “may now be identified as Josef Mengele with an absolute certainty.” Teeth were what finally proved the Angel of Death was no more.

Professional fighters, newborn babies, and the supporting cast of Deliverance aside, pretty much everyone has a mouthful of teeth. We use our ivories on a daily basis, mashing up food and smiling at friends, but we often take our thirty-two teeth for granted. And that’s just too bad. As it turns out, the human tooth is incredibly strange and is surrounded by weird and wild facts like…

10. Actors’ Teeth

There are quite a few actors out there who lose or gain a few pounds for a role, but that’s nothing compared to the stars who attack their teeth. For the 1999 classic Fight Club, Brad Pitt knew he needed to radically alter his appearance to play anarchist Tyler Durden. After all, if you start up an underground boxing club, you probably won’t end up with a movie star a beautiful smile. Pitt paid a dentist to chip away at his chompers, giving Durden a much edgier look.

But you don’t need to be an A-lister to go all method on your mouth. For his role as Stu Price in The Hangover, comedian Ed Helms also made a quick trip to the dentist. If you’ve seen the film, you know Stu pulls out his own tooth on a bet. Of course, the actor wasn’t willing to go quite that far in real life. But Helms was a man literally born to play the part of Stu. Helms was born missing a tooth, and at the age of fifteen he filled the gap with an implant. When it came time to star in The Hangover he simply removed the fake. The process was probably a bit painful, as it involved unscrewing the implant and screwing a plug into the gap in his gum. Talk about dedication.

However, the award for hardcore dentistry has to go to Viggo Mortensen. While filming Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Mortensen was busy bashing orcs at the Battle of Helm’s Deep when things got out of hand, and Aragorn accidentally broke his tooth. But instead of stomping off to his trailer, Mortensen wanted to keep  filming and insisted that someone glue his tooth back on. Fortunately, director Peter Jackson decided to cut and sent Viggo off to receive proper medical treatment. Still, you have to admire the man’s work ethic.

9. The Norwegian Tooth Bank

There are all kinds of bizarre biological banks, from sperm banks to blood banks to banks full of eyeballs. But in Norway scientists are busy working on an even stranger special facility just for storing milk teeth.

Also known as deciduous teeth, milk teeth are the extras we lose as children, and researchers from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) hope parents will donate these little incisors and bicuspids to their ever-growing tooth bank. Scientists are currently working with 100,000 children in the hopes of building the largest tooth bank in the world.

But why would anyone want milk teeth in the first place? It turns out that these temporary teeth are excellent indicators of what pollutants are in the environment. By studying them, along with blood and urine samples from the parents, MoBa researchers can learn how environmental contaminants affect a child and mother’s health. As of 2013 the bank had 17,000 teeth, all kept in envelopes and locked away in the University of Bergen where no tooth fairy can ever find them.

8. Teeth Tattoos

They might sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, but teeth tattoos are actually quite popular these days. Applied to a cap or crown, these images are permanent and come in all shapes and sizes, from pictures of George Washington to sail boats to phrases like “Bite Me.”

Scientists at Princeton and Tufts are taking teeth tattoos in a completely different direction. Instead of ink, they’re using graphene, and it isn’t for art’s sake. These tattoos are actually electronic sensors, and they’re a bacterium’s worst nightmare. Imprinted on silk, the tattoos are placed onto a tooth, and after water washes the silk away the graphene remains and monitors the mouth for bacteria. Powered by electrodes and an inductive coil, the tattoo uses antimicrobial peptides to latch onto germs. Thanks to the electricity in a bacterium’s cell membrane, a signal is sent to a nearby antenna which scientists use to determine what kind of bacteria is crawling around inside your mouth. You still need to brush, though.

7. The Fake Braces of Asia

In the west, most people think of braces as geeky, ugly and kind of uncomfortable. But beauty is relative, and in Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, braces are considered super cool… and super illegal, thanks to the rich kids.

In cities like Bangkok braces can run up to $1,200, which is a little expensive for most Thai kids. But like everything else owned by the rich and powerful, braces suddenly have an air of wealth and status about them. That’s where fashion braces, or kawat gigi untuk gaya, come in. Running about $100, these braces are sold in markets, beauty salons, and online, and can be customized in all sorts of styles like Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty.

You don’t even need a dentist to wear fashion braces. Do-It-Yourself kits are extremely popular, despite the fact that they’re against the law in Thailand. In 2012, two teenagers developed deadly infections thanks to fashion braces. Authorities were also worried about the amount of lead found in the wires and were concerned kids might choke on loose pieces. Wanting to prevent any further deaths, the Thai government outlawed the practice, threatening to punish producers with up to six months behind bars. But that only gave rise to a thriving black market for braces.

6. Buddha’s Teeth

When most people think about relics, they generally picture Christian artifacts like the Holy Grail, the True Cross and the Shroud of Turin. But Buddhism has its share of holy objects as well — many are from the Buddha’s own body, including quite a few plucked out of his mouth.

If you ever visit Sri Lanka be sure to drop by the city of Kandy, where you’ll find the sage’s left canine on display in the Temple of the Tooth. After the Buddha’s cremation, the tooth became a symbol of power. Whoever owned the canine had the right to rule Sri Lanka, and it was passed down from monarch to monarch. As you might expect, quite a few people squabbled over the tooth, and holy men were forced to hide it from time to time until it finally ended up in Kandy for all the world to see.

On your next trip you can stop by the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum in Singapore, where you can admire another one of the philosopher’s pearly whites surrounded by prayer rooms and ornate dragons. However, the weirdest of all the Buddha’s teeth is without a doubt the one in Rosemead, California. Worshippers claim the two-inch molar is actually still growing and even possesses miraculous healing powers.

5. John Lennon’s Tooth

Michael Zuk isn’t your average dentist. This Canadian has filled plenty of cavities, but when he isn’t pulling teeth Zuk is busy working on an odd experiment that involves John Lennon’s tooth. How did a dentist from Alberta get his hands on one of Lennon’s pearly whites? In the 1960s, John gave his rotten molar to his housekeeper, a woman named Dot Jartlett. He thought it would be a nice gift for her Beatlemaniac daughter, and the tooth stayed in the Jartlett family until 2011 when they sold it for over $30,000.

The buyer was Michael Zuk, and he had some very weird plans. He’s used the tooth to draw attention to mouth cancer and even let his sister use a fragment for her sculpture of Lennon’s head. However, his ultimate goal is to clone the rock star. Zuk has allegedly teamed up with a group of scientists who’ve begun sequencing Lennon’s DNA. If all goes according to plan, the singer will make his big comeback in 2040. Only this time Zuk will make sure Lennon stays away from “drugs and cigarettes.”

4. The Incredibly Creepy Jesus Statue

Visit any Catholic church and you’re bound to spot an icon of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. Most of these statues are made out of wood or plastic, but if you take a little trip to San Bartolo Cautlalpan, a small town outside Mexico City, you’ll find a figurine that’s a little more lifelike than the rest.

In early 2014 experts from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History were restoring an icon of Christ known as “The Lord of Patience.” This 3’8” wooden statue depicts Jesus moments before his crucifixion, sitting down and staring into the sky. Dating back to the 18^th century, this statue was scheduled to undergo restoration, but when researchers started X-raying the piece they noticed something extremely odd about its teeth — they had roots.

Upon closer examination, the researchers found that the Lord of Patience was fully equipped with eight human teeth, and judging by the size they were probably removed from a healthy adult. But why would anyone put real teeth inside a wooden statue? Well, perhaps it was a way of scoring points for the afterlife. Back in the day, believers would offer up hair clippings to make wigs for icons. Researchers believe that a faithful churchgoer probably yanked out a few spare ivories as a way of proving his or her devotion to God. That brings a whole new level to the Biblical “tooth for a tooth” business.

3. The Boy With 232 Teeth

Ashik Gavai was a seventeen-year-old Indian boy in a lot of pain. The right side of his jaw was swelling up like a balloon, and the local doctor didn’t know what to do. Worried the culprit was cancer, his parents took the boy to a team of specialists in Mumbai. Once they started poking around inside his mouth the doctors made an incredible discovery.

Ashik was suffering from a complex composite odontoma. A benign tumor was growing on the teenager’s jaw and essentially turned Ashik’s gums into a tooth factory. Over a seven hour operation, doctors removed 232 “pearl-like” teeth from the boy’s mouth. The four surgeons even discovered a “marble-like” brick and were forced to use a hammer and chisel to break it apart.

Hopefully the doctors removed every rogue tooth in Ashik’s mouth. If not, there’s a chance the odontoma might return. At least there’s a bright side to this macabre little tale — the world record for tooth removal from an odontoma is thirty-seven, so perhaps Ashik might get his name into Guinness.

2. The Man With A Tooth In His Nose

Nose bleeds are pretty common. In fact, three out of five people will suffer from “epistaxis” before they die. But if you’re experiencing nose bleeds once or twice a month, then there might be a problem. A twenty-two-year-old man was getting tired of constantly having to shove cotton balls up his nose, and after having multiple nosebleeds over three years he finally went to see his doctor. What the physician found was kind of horrifying.

There was a tooth growing in the man’s left nostril. It was about one centimeter long and had erupted through the floor of his nasal cavity. Surgeons were able to remove the tooth without any problems, but why was it there in the first place? Well, about 0.15% to 3.9% of people in the world actually have spare teeth. Known as mesiodentes, these extra chompers turn around and grow the wrong way, occasionally popping up inside the nose.

It’s kind of disgusting, but at least it’s understandable. But sometimes our genes get screwed up, and then things get really freaky. Take the case of Doug Pritchard. Back in 1978, Pritchard was a normal 13 year old kid living in North Carolina when his foot started to hurt. He put up with the pain for several weeks, but when he couldn’t take it anymore he went to the doctor… who found a tooth growing in his foot. Sounds like a bad horror movie.

1. Tooth-Eye Surgery

We’ll end with one of the craziest surgeries ever invented by man. In 2009, Martin Jones was a forty-two-year-old man who’d never seen his wife. Years before his wedding day he’d been blinded by an explosion of molten aluminum, but a corneal specialist named Christopher Lui promised to restore his vision with a radical operation known as modified osteo-odonot-keratoprosthesis (MOOKP). And it involved Martin’s front tooth.

After removing one of his canines, doctors drilled a small hole in the tooth and placed a lens inside. Next, they stitched the tooth into his cheek, allowing it to develop vessels and tissue before sticking the canine into Jones’ right eyeball. With the new lens firmly in place Jones could suddenly see everything, including his wife’s face.

Despite its effectiveness, MOOKP isn’t used much in the United States. American surgeons prefer a technique known as Boston Keratoprosthesis, which involves a prosthetic cornea. However, later in 2009 a team of doctors at the University of Miami became the first surgeons to perform the MOOKP operation in the U.S. The patient was a woman named Sharron Thornton who’d lost her vision due to a condition known as Stevens-Johnson syndrome. Thanks to one of her teeth and some mucus-filled cheek tissue, today Ms. Thornton can see everyone and everything around her.

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