The Science of Dentistry

Breakfast Dental Floss

So you just had waffles for breakfast, and are now flossing with some Bacon Floss. You might want to savor the taste of those waffles a bit more instead by flossing with the waffle floss that you can find in the Breakfast Dental Floss set. And don’t worry, because it also has twelve whole yards of bacon floss, too, in case you run out. You can also wash down all that flossing with the Coffee Floss. It doesn’t get any more complete than this.

Dental Specialties

Thanks to some creative marketing schemes and weekend education courses, consumers are often mislead about the credentials of some dental practitioners.

Dentist Taking Blood Pressure

Dental professionals can play an important role in screening for diseases that can affect not only your general health, but also your dental health — and treatment.

Phobias are the most common psychiatric problems, ranging from fear of flying and heights to needles and spiders. Traditional treatment consists of psychotherapy, specifically exposure to the stimulus with attempts to control the response. Now, a new offering from Self-Study Apps purports a similar approach in the comfort of your own home.

Happy New Year

You’ve probably made a lot of New Year’s resolutions in your life — but I’m willing to bet that you’ve never made a New Year’s resolution for your teeth!  Here are a few goals that will improve your dental health, as well as your overall health:

Dental Plasma Brush

A team of researchers from University of Missouri, University of Tennessee, and Nanova, Inc (Columbia, MO) have been working on a new dental “plasma brush” for cleaning out cavities and preparing teeth for fillings. The device uses “cool” plasma to affect chemical reactions while remaining painless to the patient.

Ancient Teeth

Toothaches, and attempts to cure them, have no doubt been around as long as we have. In fact, researchers discovered evidence of tooth drilling that took place more than 9,000 years ago. It seems some enterprising dentist-in-training put down his spear and picked up a crude dental drill to fix cavity-ridden molars in his fellow Neolithic man. The good news is that the process was unbelievably precise and took about minute. The bad news? No anesthesia!

Cranberry's Cavities

A team led by oral biologist Hyun (Michel) Koo, D.D.S., Ph.D., at the University of Rochester Medical Center has discovered that the same traits that make cranberry juice a powerful weapon against bladder infections also hold promise for protecting teeth against cavities.

GERD, Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease, is a disease in which acid from the stomach, or occasionally bile, refluxes or flows back into the esophagus (gullet). It’s the same problem that has been plaguing people for eons, and is the major cause of heartburn.

Dental Anxiety

We hear on a daily basis, “I hate going to the dentist”.  Many patients do not enjoy their visit to the dentist for various reasons.

Snoring and Sleep Apnea

Snoring occurs when the soft tissue structures of the upper airway (back of the throat) collapse onto themselves, the tongue drops back, and air is obstructed in its movement through the mouth and nose into the lungs. As a result, these obstacles create the vibration that produces snoring. Large tonsils, a long soft palate, a large tongue, the uvula (the tissue that looks like a mini punch-bag dangling at the back of the mouth), and even fat deposits can also contribute to blockage and hence snoring.

People will buy anything. And I literally mean anything. Sometimes they will pay a bunch of money for things you’d have to pay me to take. And if a celebrity is attached to it, the more money it will fetch.  Take for example the recent auction of John Lennon’s gnarly, half-decayed tooth. 

Apples

Eating apples can be up to four times more damaging to teeth than carbonated drinks, according to new research.

Among the young adults of today tongue and lip piercing has become quite a latest trend. In fact tongue piercing has become readily easily available to everyone since these piercings are not being governed by any regulations. Despite of looking appealing, piercing the tongue makes it convenient for microorganisms to enter into the bloodstream since there are excessive blood vessels in the oral cavity. For people who are allergic to metals or suffer from heart diseases, a tongue piercing can even prove to be dangerous. Tongue piercing is one of the types of the oral piercings.

Halloween Candy

Candy consumption is almost unavoidable at this time of the year, so I am going to offer some advice as to which sweets are less damaging to your teeth than others.

In addition to the major salivary glands, and accessory glands situated throughout the oral mucosa, there are other specialized sources of saliva secretion:

Fear of the dentist is one of the greatest phobias that both children and adults struggle with. For such people, it is enough only to imagine the dentist chair and the dentist with the mask on ready to take action and they are scared off for quite a good period of time.

Dental masks are a common sight on Japanese streets, or to be more exact, on Japanese faces. Though Westerners may feel some unease if encountering a mask-wearing person in their home towns, face masks in Japan aren’t harbingers of disease and illness. On the contrary, wearing a face mask is merely common courtesy extended to others who share an oft-crowded social milieu.

Properties of materials chosen for dental restorations include: performance under chewing or biting function, durability, longevity, cost and ease of placement. The utmost considerations include safety and biological compatibility with very low incidence of allergic response. But let’s get right to the point about silver fillings commonly known as dental amalgam. The American Dental Association (ADA) states, “Dental amalgam has been used by dentists for more than a century and is the most thoroughly researched and tested restorative material among all those in use today.”

Leading dental and pharmacy organizations are teaming up to promote oral health and raise public awareness of dry mouth, a side effect commonly caused by taking prescription and over-the-counter medications.

So much more than than a pair of upturned lips, the smile is the most scientifically studied human facial expression.

Before some dental treatments, patients who have certain heart conditions and those with artificial joints take antibiotics. These people may be at risk of developing an infection in the heart or at the site of the artificial joint, respectively. Antibiotics reduce this risk. This is called antibiotic prophylaxis.

I know this sounds weird, but there is a surgical procedure that uses a tooth implanted in the eye to help some types of blindness. It’s called..