Many people of a certain age can recall seeing comical illustrations of children – usually little boys – pulling out a bothersome tooth by tying a string between the tooth and a doorknob and slamming that door shut. Appealing as this method may be to a dentist-fearing child, it’s certainly not recommended. Safely extracting a
When you leave your home, what do you do? You probably lock the doors. When you leave your car to go shopping, what do you do? You probably lock the car’s doors. And if you had siblings when you were a teenager, you probably locked your bedroom door, and maybe your diary. Locks protect things
Ouch! It’s a common word and nearly universally understood as an indication that someone has just experienced an unexpected pain. But sometimes this common word leaves your own mouth, just because you opened it. Like so many other unexpected twinges and tingles and tiny surprise pains, a brief jab of discomfort when you open your
Here’s a statistic that you may not be aware of: one of the most common chronic diseases among children in the United States is tooth decay. According to the Centers for Disease Control, nearly half of all children have some tooth decay – that is, some cavities – by the time they reach kindergarten. This
Our first president, George Washington, never really wore dentures made of wood. He did have a full set of dentures by age 60, but they were constructed of ivory and human teeth. Fortunately, times have changed. To replace teeth nowadays, there are other choices. All of which George would probably have preferred. What choices do
It’s a cliché: a summertime photo of happy children with rumpled hair and sun-reddened noses…and braces on their teeth. Shiny metal braces. Of course, kids are still “cute as the dickens” (as their grandparents say) even with a mouth full of steel. Adults generally aren’t. That’s why adults who are unhappy with their crooked teeth,
