Dental hygiene is far from a recent development: throughout human history, people everywhere and in every society have done their best to keep their teeth clean and healthy. Failing that, they searched for ways to get unhealthy teeth out of their mouths as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Read more
In fiction, grinding your teeth is one of the classic signs of stress and anger, up there with pulling out your hair and flipping various pieces of furniture. However, grinding your teeth, or “bruxism,” is a habit that can develop even without any significant stress or anger. Worst of all, you may never even realize you have it until you’ve already chipped a tooth or popped a filling. Read more
If you were to search the entire world, you’d find very few people who would eagerly line up to visit their dentist. Even a routine cleaning and inspection isn’t exactly a pleasant experience, what with the glaring light, the mandatory flossing, the metal tools they use to scrape the base of your teeth, and of course the ever-present risk that they’ll find a cavity. On the other hand, missing your dentist’s appointment may make things even worse in the long run. Read more
There are a variety of possible reasons which may explain why your breath doesn’t smell like roses and plum blossoms. Many of these reasons, like eating certain foods, aren’t a significant problem and there’s nothing you can or should do about it aside from masking the scent with a breath freshener. However, persistent bad breath may also indicate that something serious is happening to your teeth or to your diet, and it may be worth speaking with your dentist to identify the cause. Read more
Braces play an important role in making sure that your teeth come in straight and without any complications. This is important for making sure that your smile is good-looking and healthy, but it also ensures that your teeth won’t twist out of place years later. Improperly aligned teeth can cause practical problems along with cosmetic ones, since it can be hard to chew when your upper and lower teeth don’t make contact and teeth that push up against one another can cause pain and infections. Read more
Fluoride stands as one of the greatest dental health discoveries of all time, up there with the invention of Novocain and the development of fillings. By applying just a little fluoride to your teeth, either through fluoridated water, through the use of fluoridated toothpaste, or through special fluoride treatments at your local dentist, we can give our tooth enamel the chance to recrystallize and undo the damage caused by enamel-consuming bacteria. However, there is such a thing as too much fluoride, especially in the developing teeth of children. Read more
It’s strange if you think about it. When it comes to the health of our bodies, Americans will typically act in a certain order: the first thing they’ll do is visit their regular doctor, either a general practitioner or a pediatrician. If the doctor discovers something wrong with the patient that some rest and a few painkillers can’t fix, the physician will send him or her along to a specialist who will know more about the particular part of the body that’s acting up. After that comes the treatment, and with luck the patient will be as good as new by the end of it. Read more
So the apocalypse has finally come: your teeth have finally reached the point where your dentist thinks you should simply pull out the ones that are left and go with full dentures from now on. You were reluctant, but ultimately you knew your dentist was right. Now you have a full set of teeth again, but you have to pull them out every night before you go to sleep. Read more
Brushing your baby teeth seems like an exercise in futility. After all, it’s not like they’re going to stick around for very long – just half a dozen years or so and their replacements will start popping in one after another. So what’s the point in keeping them clean and cavity free when they won’t be around for the long haul? Read more
We are what we eat, and to a large extent the nature of our diet is reflected in the size of our waistline and in the energy that keeps us going throughout the day. However, there is one other thing which our eating habits strongly affect, and that is the state of our teeth. What we eat (and how we eat it) can have a big impact on how many cavities we get and how bad they are, and what’s good for our bodies isn’t always what’s good for our teeth. Read more