Brushing twice and flossing once daily is a smart idea if your diet contains processed carbohydrates. Toothpaste always comes along for the ride on our brushes. Did you ever stop and wonder how necessary it is? I have. I say no. I will explain my rationale in this post.
Read MoreWelcome to part five. The use of toothpicks is uniquely human. The famous dental anthropologist Peter Unger discovered tiny striations in teeth that could not be caused by chewing. He concluded that the marks could only have been caused by the overuse of toothpicks made of hard materials like bone. He also drew a parallel between tool use and the introduction of meat to humans' diets. Ungar said toothpick use is one of the first lines of evidence from the hominid fossil record that shows our genus consuming significant amounts of meat in the ancient past. Tooth picking likely served to remove food, especially meat, but it caused visible damage. To quote him, "Teeth are not well designed for eating meat, so our early ancestors had to use toothpicks." This post will cover the evidence and discuss the proper use of toothpicks.
Read MoreAfter 31 years of practice, I have seen a correlation between my patients with higher numbers of missing teeth and their failing health. Research largely bears my observations out. Today I am going to discuss five papers that give a little more clarity to the subject of dental health as it relates to overall health and mortality.
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