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Re: dino dental hygiene



I know monitor lizards actually prosper from the noxious bacteria in their mouths for helping to bring down their living prey -

Don't underestimate the monitors' own venom, though.

do cold-blooded reptiles suffer from tooth decay? Is it only a mammalian problem?

I don't know what being cold-blooded could have to do with it... in any case, there is an ichthyosaur jaw from the Cretaceous of Australia that shows caries, where food seems to have got stuck between the tooth roots*, but this is exceptional because most vertebrates other than mammals replace their teeth too often for caries to develop. (I have the paper in Vienna and forgot the ref... I think it was in Alcheringa, maybe 5 years ago...)


* Ichthyosaurs are aulacodont, not thecodont: rather than each tooth having its own socket, each jaw has a single continuous socket for the entire toothrow, and the roots touch each other.

What about a kronosaur in the shallows at rest letting various fishes tidy their oral cavities?

Entirely possible, but probably untestable at present.