For how we live.
A four-image bitewing set delivers about 5 microsieverts, a panoramic scan 14 to 24. A cone-beam CT can be tens of times higher. The dose is small, but technique and how often you scan drive it more than anything.
A Cochrane review found no evidence that antibiotics ease the pain of an inflamed tooth nerve. The best trial evidence points to ibuprofen, with paracetamol added — but only a dentist fixes the cause.
Fluoride toothpaste is the home foundation, with a Cochrane prevented fraction of 24%. At the dentist, fluoride varnish and resin sealants have the strongest trial record — but the evidence is only moderate.
A multicentre reader study found AI raised early-career dentists' caries sensitivity from 67% to 82% without more false positives. Independent testing shows the same tools still miss early lesions.
Decades of randomised trials give fluoride toothpaste a prevented fraction Cochrane puts at 24%. Concentration and how you brush change the size of the benefit — but no over-the-counter rival has evidence like it.
Cochrane found composite resin restorations had almost double the failure rate in children's permanent teeth. The FDA does not recommend removing intact amalgam fillings from anyone.
Cochrane's 2024 review found low-certainty evidence of a small effect since fluoride toothpaste became widespread. The IQ meta-analysis that reopened the argument reported a null below 1.5 mg/L in one key analysis.
Oil pulling and miswak have real short-term data on plaque and gum inflammation. Charcoal dentifrices have almost none, and a third of the products reviewed contained bentonite clay.
Two Cochrane reviews found low- to very low-certainty evidence that floss slightly reduces gum inflammation. Neither found a single trial measuring interproximal decay, the thing flossing is sold to prevent.