You might not know it, but we are all witnessing the end of a nearly 200-year chapter in dentistry: the end of mercury amalgam fillings. With the European Union’s total ban and the FDA advising against amalgam for more than half the population, the market has fundamentally shifted. Major suppliers have already abandoned it completely. Holdouts like Australia’s SDI have announced plans to phase...
Most Americans hear it by the time they hit their late teens or early twenties: “Your wisdom teeth need to come out.” The reasons given for it can sound perfectly reasonable: The teeth will be easier to extract now, while you’re young. They might cause crowding. They make it harder to clean, so you’ll be more likely to get cavities or gum disease. They might cause problems later, so we might as...
If you have a car or a scooter or even just a bike, say, and you don’t use it very frequently or even take care of it, eventually, your ride isn’t going to work so well. The same goes for the human body. It’s one reason why staying physically active is so important. In fact, research has consistently shown that living a sedentary lifestyle raises your risk of dying early. One 2023 study, for...
Toothbrushing is great. So is flossing. Oral irrigators are the bomb; interdental brushes, too. And you just know we’re fans of regular dental checkups. But you want to know something? These aren’t the most important things for keeping your teeth and gums healthy. (Take all the moments you need to let that sink in. We’ll wait.) Really and truly, as important as oral hygiene is, it’s actually the...
Whether we’re doing a simple cleaning or a complex set of dental restorations, biocompatibility matters. As a biological practice, we want to be sure that all the materials we use and procedures we do will be in harmony with the rest of the body. It’s perhaps even more important when we’re placing dental implants, as they’re intended to become one with the body. The implants serve as artificial...
To a lot of people, “holistic” conjures ideas of crunchiness, being rustic, going off the grid. But while embracing the natural is certainly a part of it, the word itself is more about respecting connectedness, entirety - as in holistic dentistry, where we always treat the mouth in its relationship to the rest of the body. And sometimes, we use some pretty high tech tools to do that. Dental...
Your body is a remarkable example of self-regulation in action. When we give it what it needs and protect it from harm, it keeps itself in balance, constantly making small adjustments to keep everything running smoothly. When the body senses that something is off, it automatically makes corrections to bring things back to normal. This can be seen in miniature in the mouth, where saliva responds...
As the year winds down and we get ready to welcome 2025, many of us have begun thinking about making resolutions to transform our health and vitality. But there’s one critical aspect of wellness that often goes overlooked: the intricate connection between oral and whole body health. Your mouth isn’t an isolated system, after all. It’s a powerful indicator and influencer of your total physiology....
Trends come and go - even dentistry. One that’s really started to gain some momentum is what’s known as “biomimetic dentistry.” Simply breaking down the word gives you the basic sense of what it means. “Bio” means life; “mimetic” means imitating. That’s the goal of biomimetics: to imitate life. So biomimetic dentistry strives to restore damaged teeth using materials and techniques that replicate...
Although tooth enamel is the hardest tissue in the human body, it’s not invulnerable. A teeth grinding habit can wear it down. The highly acidic waste generated by harmful oral bacteria can eat through it. A highly acidic diet can do the same. Of particular concern are fruit juices and soft drinks, as they deliver a big double-whammy: Not only are they acidic; they can contain a lot of sugar....
