Human teeth are small in size but are hard, white in color and rich in calcium. Found in the mouth, these teeth are responsible for crushing and cutting the food items so that they can be digested easily by the body. The number of teeth that a human being has depends largely on age. Usually children have a less amount of teeth than the adults. How many adult teeth should an adult have?
How Many Adult Teeth Should an Adult Have?
The development of teeth in babies starts taking place at the prenatal stage. However, these teeth do not become visible until the child reaches the age of about 6 to 12 months. The teeth development process quickens after that and by the age of three years, most kids grow around 20 teeth known as baby teeth or milk teeth. The milk teeth do not have a long life and begin to fall off when the child reaches the age of six. In place of these baby teeth, the adult teeth grow that have a longer life span than them.
As opposed to the baby teeth which are 20 in number, the adult set has a total of 32 teeth which means that there are 12 additional teeth that grow independently without having to replace any baby teeth. The ideal number of teeth that an adult should have is 32, with eight of them being incisors, four of them canines, eight of them premolars and about twelve molars. The molar teeth comprise of four wisdom teeth that usually take a longer period of time to emerge and develop than the other teeth. You are not going to see any wisdom teeth until you reach the age of 17.
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What Are the Types of Adult Teeth?
| Teeth | Description |
|---|---|
| Incisors |
The Incisors are the teeth that are located at the front of your mouth in the central position. There are four incisors present on the top and four of them line the bottom. The job of the incisors is to bite the food you eat. Incisors are the first of the baby teeth to emerge when you are around 6 months old. The adult incisors replace the baby ones at around 6 years of age. |
| Canines |
The canines are the sharpest teeth we have and have a pointed edge. The job of these teeth which develop after the incisors is to tear the food especially meat. The canines are four in number and usually grow when the child reaches the age of 20 months. You will find the upper canines of your baby set appearing first and the lower canines a little while later. In contrast, the adult canines follow a different order with the lower canines leading the upper ones. The adult canines do not emerge until you reach the age of 9 years. |
| Premolars |
Humans have eight adult Premolars, four of them on one side of the mouth and the other four on the other side. These teeth perform the task of grinding the food in to smaller particles. The age at which the premolars start appearing is between 10 and 11 years. These teeth are also known as bicuspids. |
| Molars |
We have a total of eight molars in our adult teeth set having four of them lining the upper jaw and four of them on the lower jaw. The first and second molars appear at age 6 and 13 respectively and perform the task of chewing the food we eat. |
| Third Molars |
The last of the teeth to appear are the third molars which are also referred to as wisdom teeth. You are not going to grow these until you are about 17 years old. A great number of people never grow these teeth while those who do have to get them removed as they cause a lot of pain when erupting and are the major reason for crowding of teeth. |