WHY DO DENTISTS always warn against chewing ice? It’s because it’s a habit that can do serious and permanent damage to the teeth and gums. Even when ice-chewers know this, they can still find it difficult to quit, so let’s…
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THE DENTAL CAREER everyone is most familiar with is the private practice dentist, meaning an individual dentist or a partnership working with local patients in their own practice. That’s the kind of dentist we all go to for our normal…
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THIS YEAR ALONE, the American Cancer Society estimates over 54,000 new cases of oral cancer just in the US. When we say “oral cancer,” we’re usually referring to a broad range of cancers affecting various parts of the mouth and…
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THE NEXT TIME you need an ice-breaker, why not toss out a few weird mouth facts? We’re confident you’ll be able to impress your friends. Fact #1: We Need our Spit to Taste Our Food Our saliva plays a crucial…
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A CANKER SORE, a shallow ulcer that can develop on the inside of the cheeks or lips, can mean days of discomfort. Different things can trigger a canker sore. The most common are a bitten lip or cheek (which only…
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THROUGHOUT HISTORY, WOMEN have faced numerous challenges in pursuing their careers. Dentistry is no exception. It has taken significant determination and persistence for women to establish themselves in the field of dentistry. In this blog post, we will be discussing…
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ON AVERAGE, BOYS and men are up to 20% less likely to brush twice a day and even less likely to replace their old toothbrushes on a regular basis than girls and women. Luckily, it’s a simple problem to fix:…
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EATING DISORDERS ARE incredibly dangerous, sometimes life-threatening mental conditions. The first health impacts that probably come to mind are the psychological toll they take and the malnutrition they cause if left unchecked. However, they also take a toll on oral…
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WOMEN FACE A different set of challenges than men do in caring for their teeth and gums, and they also have different advantages. Oral Health Issues that Affect Women More Women make up 90% of temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) diagnoses.…
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IF EVERY BITE of ice cream or every sip of coffee gives your teeth a nasty jolt, then you know what it’s like to live with tooth sensitivity. At least one in every eight Americans (including kids) has sensitive teeth.…
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SMOKING IS AN incredibly unhealthy habit for the entire body, and that includes teeth and gums. 80% of oral cancer diagnoses are to those who smoke or chew tobacco. Early symptoms include odd white patches in the mouth, pain or…
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IN ORDER TO EARN the ADA’s Seal of Acceptance, a tube of toothpaste must contain fluoride and must NOT contain sugar. Trace amounts of fluoride have been added to drinking water across the country for the better part of a…
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HAVING A PLAN already in place can make a huge difference if an emergency comes up, and that definitely applies to dental emergencies like oral injuries. How do we plan ahead for unexpected injuries? That will depend on the particular…
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DIABETES (ANY TYPE) tends to make good dental health a much more difficult goal to achieve, and poor oral health also makes diabetes harder to control. More than one in five diabetics will develop a form of gum disease, which…
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AROUND 35 MILLION people in the US are affected by temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD or TMJ), which is why we’re observing TMJ Awareness Month. Our jaws get an almost constant workout throughout the day. We open and close our mouths…
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MANY PEOPLE HAVE the idea that gum recession is only a concern for older people (that’s where the saying “long in the tooth” came from), but it can start at any age. While we can’t do anything about a risk…
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TIKTOK ISN’T THE best place to go for dental health advice — unless your dentist is active on the app. We’ve seen a lot of worrying DIY dental procedures popping up recently, so now is a great time to nip…
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THERE ARE SO many choices of toothpaste in our grocery stores. With an entire aisle of toothpaste options to choose from, we want to help our patients narrow things down a little based on their individual dental health needs. Whitening…
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PEOPLE HAVE BEEN getting cavities as long as there have been people, and people before modern dentistry had some strange theories about what was causing them. A popular one believed around the world for thousands of years was the idea…
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MOST MEDICATIONS come with a list of possible side effects, including side effects that impact oral health. These side effects are common even when the medications have nothing to do with your teeth or gums, so it’s helpful to know…
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IT’S NOT ACTUALLY true that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile; smiling takes at least ten muscles while frowning requires as few as six. We think the saying should be changed to “smile to burn more calories!”…
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“SWIMMER’S CALCULUS” SOUNDS more like advanced mathematics than anything to do with teeth, but it’s actually the term for yellow or brown stains a swimmer can develop on their teeth after prolonged exposure to acidic chlorine ions in pool water.…
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WE TEND TO ASSUME that people from earlier eras (especially the pre-industrial ones) must have had terrible dental health, but that’s not always true. While we get to benefit from modern dental care, braces, and root canal therapy here in…
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TEETH HAVE MANY different uses, from chewing our food to helping us speak clearly to forming the structure of our faces. They also give us our smiles! These are the uses our teeth are for, but we risk causing serious…
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THERE WON’T BE a pop-quiz later, but we still want our patients to be familiar with the anatomy of their teeth, starting with the crown and going down to the roots. Everything visible above the gums is the crown, which…
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NOT MUCH WAS understood in Medieval England about cavities or gum disease, but they did care very much about keeping their breath fresh. They didn’t know about germs, and they believed that bad smells were infectious on their own, including bad…
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WE HEAR A LOT that it’s bad to chew ice. It’s because ice can do a lot of damage to our teeth and gums. Extreme Temperature Changes Versus Enamel Tooth enamel might be the strongest substance in the body, but…
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THERE’S A LOT OF strange stuff buried in the history of dental health and hygiene, but there are a few traditions that really stand out. Stopping Bruxism With Skulls The ancient Babylonians had a very peculiar way of treating bruxism…
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STAYING INFORMED ABOUT the symptoms and risk factors of oral cancer is incredibly important. We oral health professionals are on the front lines of the battle against oral cancer, and we want to recruit our patients to fight with us.…
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WHAT DOES A CAREER in dentistry look like? Being a dentist is an incredibly rewarding career, and beyond helping our patients maintain lifelong healthy smiles, we hope our team inspires at least a few budding dentists out there! We want…
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