You might not know the word mukbang, but watch a few seconds of one, and there’s a good chance you’ve seen something like it before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfqpsfZskfE Lots of food. Really big bites. And the sounds -- the crunching, slurping, and chewing --...
Whenever talk turns to concerns about fluoride, the conversation usually centers on toxicity. That’s as it should be. Whenever any substance is to be put into the human body, questions about safety matter. Yet toxicity isn’t the only way a material can affect the...
You walk past a cooler or a row of shelves. It’s hard to miss how much has changed. Bright labels. Clean design. Ingredient lists that read like a wellness checklist: electrolytes, adaptogens, probiotics. Each can or bottle promises a little something extra and good...
Your child wakes up in the middle of the night with severe tooth pain. The kind that makes it impossible to sleep, impossible to ignore. At that point, many families do what they have to do: They go to the emergency room. According to a recent CBS News report, the...
Plaque is usually framed as something you need to get rid of - PRONTO. Brush it away. Floss it out. Keep it from building up. But plaque isn’t just fuzzy, sticky gunk on your teeth. It’s a living biofilm - a live bacterial community - and how that biofilm behaves...
If your Thanksgiving plans involve cracking eggs for pie, say, or bread pudding, you probably won’t think twice about just chucking the shells into your compost or trash can. But eggshells, being made mostly of calcium, can actually play a role in dental health - at...
We recently read about some interesting new research out of NYU, meant to solve a problem with a compound called silver diamine fluoride, or SDF for short. Used by conventional dentists, SDF can be painted onto teeth to reduce sensitivity and keep decay from...
A frustrated patient recently posted this question to Reddit: This scenario is a common one: A person follows all the “rules” yet still struggles with decay, while others seem able to stay cavity-free despite a junky diet or less-than-great hygiene. That’s because...
It’s the kind of study that makes coffee- and tea-drinkers rejoice: According to research published earlier this year in the journal Cancer, your habit may help lower your risk of oral cancer. Analyzing data from 14 past studies, the research team found that those who...
When you’ve got gum disease, your regular dental cleanings can become a little more intense. Simple scaling isn’t enough. We’ve got to go under the gums to clean and smooth the roots so it’s harder for harmful bacteria to colonize and thrive. This helps your gums...