What a mouthful.

Can you imagine yourself with fifty-two teeth in your mouth--all at the same time?

When you were born, you had exactly that many teeth!

No one could see them yet. But embedded in your jaws were a set of twenty baby teeth and a set of thirty-two adult (permanent) teeth.

Your first set of teeth began punching through your gums when you were about six months old. By the time you were two, most of your baby teeth were showing.

Now that you are between six and twelve years old, your permanent teeth are able to release a special chemical. This chemical dissolves the roots of the baby tooth above each permanent tooth. When the roots of the baby tooth are dissolved, it can be wiggled out.

That leaves room for your permanent teeth to punch through your gums. Take good care of those teeth--you won't be able to grow any more replacements!

Unike you, a shark can grow replacement teeth every four weeks!

They have between four and twenty rows of teeth at a time! When a tooth is lost, a tooth from the row behind it moves into the old tooth's place. A shark can lose and replace about 2,400 teeth in one year!