20/20 Vision on Dental Hygiene

dental hygiene

With the ball drop at midnight and the off-key vocals of “Auld Lang Syne” bidding farewell to 2019, we enter a time of both reflection on what the previous year brought, as well as turning our sights to the future bringing new growth, new challenges and new opportunities. As we enter the year 2020 and, … Read more

Human Tooth Jewelry Discovered At Neolithic Site In Turkey

Among the animal-tooth pendants and other jewelry discovered at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey, three human teeth that appear to have been drilled have also just been recovered. Archaeologists were surprised by the find and set out to determine whether they were made from the living or from the dead. Çatalhöyük is an archaeological … Read more

Rethinking Health History When Bone Grafting

RoknianPAc alternate text for this image

In the last several years, there has been a noted increase in mysterious cases presented to my practice. These patients seem to have similar oral manifestations – rampant decay, poor healing ability, and an assortment of hopeless teeth. It isn’t uncommon for these patients to be dismissed from a practice, referred to a variety of … Read more

Medieval Dental Plaque Sheds Light on How Our Microbiomes Have Changed

The communities of bacteria that live in our mouths have changed drastically since the Middle Ages, according to a new study of remains buried in a medieval Danish cemetery. And it turns out that some people may have been more predisposed to tooth and gum disease than others, thanks in part to the bacterial communities … Read more

Dental Calculus Sheds Light on Ancestors’ Tobacco Use

A team of scientists including researchers from Washington State University has shown for the first time that nicotine residue can be extracted from plaque, also known as “dental calculus”, on the teeth of ancient tobacco users. Their research provides a new method for determining who was consuming tobacco in the ancient world and could help … Read more

Duck-Bill Dinosaur Would Have Been a Dentist’s Dream

University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) researchers have gained new insight into hadrosaurs, or duck-billed dinosaurs. The creatures have been on the radar for more than a century and a half, but their peculiar dental structure wasn’t entirely understood, a UTM news release notes. That is, until recently, when Aaron LeBlanc, UTM PhD candidate in the … Read more

Oldest Dental Remains In Americas’ History Found In Mexico

Specialists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) have discovered from bone remains the oldest dental treatment in the Americas dated around 647-768 AD. “We are not talking about mutilation or deformation, like in the Mayan or Egyptian culture, but rather a complex procedure that required specialized dental knowledge,” said Avto Gogichaishvili and Juan … Read more