FOR AS LONG AS there have been people, there has been tooth decay, but people in past civilizations didn’t have as many answers about what caused their tooth problems as we do now. That led to some very strange beliefs about dental health. One of the most common was the “tooth worm.” Ancient Well-Intentioned ErrorsAs […]
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“MOUTH-BREATHER” HAS made the rounds as an insult in recent years, but breathing primarily through the mouth instead of the nose can actually have some pretty negative effects on health, including oral health. Mouth-breathing should only be done as an emergency backup, not the main way to breathe. The Nose Is a Built-In Air FilterThe […]
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WE CAN SEE a hint of the state of dental health in Shakespeare’s England from a sonnet in which he describes his lady love’s reeking breath. The lines “black contagious breath” and “his breath stinks with eating toasted cheese” make it into two of the history plays. This was likely because dental health in England […]
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YOU PROBABLY HEARD the line “it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown” when you were growing up, but the pedantic dentist might point out that it technically isn’t true. At least ten muscles are involved in smiling, while as few as six are required for frowning. But that’s no reason to frown more; […]
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BY THEIR ELEVENTH birthday, 2 in 5 kids will have at least one cavity, but parents can do a lot to keep their child’s teeth healthy. One major cavity culprit is sugary drinks, and that includes fruit juice. The worst way to drink it is by sipping it throughout the day, which can cause extensive […]
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THE FIRST BABY TOOTH and the first loose tooth are two of childhood’s biggest milestones, and new parents probably have a lot of questions about what to expect and whether it’s time to start worrying. We’re here to give you an easy guide to let you know when incoming baby teeth typically arrive and when […]
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WE TEND TO IMAGINE that people from earlier eras must’ve had worse teeth than we do because they didn’t have things like modern dentistry, orthodontics, and root canal treatment, but what dental problems were they dealing with and how did they protect their teeth? Gum Disease Through HistoryWe have evidence that ancient Native Americans — […]
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IT ISN’T ALWAYS easy to teach a young child important life skills. They have boundless energy and short attention spans, so a session of sitting still with a toothbrush isn’t always going to go as planned. Following these tips might help when imparting these essential skills: 1. Show them that brushing is a priority. If […]
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NOT MUCH IS better in the world than the smiles of our kids, and we have to work hard to keep those smiles healthy. Regular dental visits are a crucial part of a lifetime of good dental health, and that should start early on. If your child’s next dental visit will actually be their first, […]
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BACK IN MEDIEVAL times in England (and in most other places, to be fair), people didn’t have a great understanding of what caused cavities or gum disease, but they still cared about having fresh breath. It wasn’t just out of politeness — they believed that bad smells could carry disease on their own, including bad […]
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