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This EleFact Friday is all about elephant teeth, which are remarkably different from those of many other animals. In fact, elephants don’t have tooth sockets. As molars are formed and worn down over time, the tooth will pass through the jaw from back to front, sort of like a conveyor belt. As their teeth continue to wear down, sections fall off in wafer-like sheets, piece by piece. There are four molars in an elephant’s mouth at one time, but they may go through six sets of molars in their lifetime. The final set usually emerges in the animal’s early 40s and should last for the rest of the elephant’s life. 

In our history with elephants, we have worked with more than one who had entire teeth fall out almost immediately after arriving at sanctuary. It’s a sign of improper diet in captivity and irregular tooth wear over the years from the smaller, concentrated meals they are offered versus being able to graze 15-20 hours a day, as they are meant to. Should a sanctuary elephant ever lose all of her teeth, they would need to be fed cooked, chopped, or soft food. It’s less likely for elephants in the wild to have irregular tooth wear like what we see in captive individuals, but they would be unlikely to survive if they lost all of their teeth. We’ve never worked directly with an elephant without teeth in our combined 50 years of experience, but should that ever happen, there’s a plan in place for care. 

Photo of Maia’s glorious teeth