Weird Dental History Highlight: “Tooth Worms”
PEOPLE HAVE BEEN getting cavities as long as there have been people, and people before modern dentistry had some strange theories…
Your Prescriptions and Your Oral Health
MOST MEDICATIONS come with a list of possible side effects, including side effects that impact oral health. These side…
When Is Thumbsucking a Problem?
A PACIFIER OR THUMB/finger-sucking habit that lasts beyond the toddler years can have a negative impact on a child’s…
Can We Smile Our Way to Better Health?
IT’S NOT ACTUALLY true that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile; smiling takes at least ten muscles while frowning…
How We Breathe Can Affect Our Teeth
YOU MAY HAVE heard the insult “mouth-breather” in recent years thanks to the popularity of the show Stranger Things. There are…
Elizabethan England’s Rotten Sweet Tooth
IN ONE OF HIS sonnets, Shakespeare described the reeking breath of his lady love, and the subject came up again in two of his plays. He sets…
When to Expect Baby Teeth to Appear
A COUPLE OF the biggest rites of passage in childhood are the first baby teeth coming in and the…
Cavities: The Most Common Childhood Disease
40% OF KIDS WILL develop at least one cavity by the time they turn eleven, which makes tooth decay the most common disease of childhood. That…
How Do Swimming and Diving Affect Teeth?
“SWIMMER’S CALCULUS” SOUNDS more like advanced mathematics than anything to do with teeth, but it’s actually the term for yellow…
Dental Health in Ancient Cultures
WE TEND TO ASSUME that people from earlier eras (especially the pre-industrial ones) must have had terrible dental health, but that’s…