For how we live.
A Global Burden of Disease 2023 analysis counts 241 million users worldwide, concentrated in south Asia, with a rising burden of stroke and oral cancer even as prevalence has barely moved.
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.
Grinding and clenching in sleep is common, and in healthy people experts now class it as a behaviour rather than a disorder. But the evidence on how common it is, and what causes it, is thinner than you would expect.
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.
HPV drove 71.7% of US oropharyngeal cancers in the most recent period studied, and incidence in men rose 2.7% a year through 2017. Vaccination cuts the oral infections behind them.
A 2006 Cochrane review found the classic ingredient, potassium, only patchily convincing. A newer network meta-analysis of 32 trials is firmer: stannous, potassium and arginine toothpastes can be recommended for pain.
A Cochrane review of 36 trials found no strong evidence that any spray, gel or lozenge reliably relieves dry mouth. A second review found acupuncture no better than a placebo. The honest answers are narrow.
The strongest rinse, chlorhexidine, clearly cuts plaque and gum inflammation — but stains teeth, so it is a short-term treatment, not a daily habit. Everyday rinses help less, and always work on top of brushing.
Cold sores heal on their own in about a week, and nothing clears the virus for good. Creams and pills shave hours to roughly a day off an episode — but only if started at the first tingle.
Most bad breath starts in the mouth. Cochrane reviews found tongue scraping cuts odour compounds only briefly, and the rinses that work best also stain the teeth.
A Cochrane review of 51 trials found powered brushes cut plaque and gum inflammation more than manual ones, on moderate-quality evidence. An 11-year cohort suggests the small edge adds up: fewer teeth lost.
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.
A self-reported cross-sectional study of 599 residents found sharp deterioration across every measured dimension of oral health during the war — a neglected corner of the humanitarian-health picture.
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.
The American Heart Association said so in 2012. A 2026 synthesis of 19 systematic reviews found most pooled associations negligible in magnitude, and a genetic analysis found no direct causal path.
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.
A 2026 meta-analysis of nine in vitro studies found a small, outlier-sensitive reduction in enamel microhardness. Every study was done on extracted teeth. The better-evidenced problem is sensitivity.
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.
Canker sores clear on their own, and nothing reliably cures or prevents them. A Cochrane review found systemic drugs unproven; some topical options may ease pain, but the trials behind them are small and weak.
The viral idea that root-canal-treated teeth seed chronic illness traces to discredited 1920s work. Modern reviews find treated teeth are not implicated in systemic disease, and most survive for years.
Aligners reliably straighten mild-to-moderate crowding but struggle with rotations and extrusions. The evidence-based worry with direct-to-consumer kits is the absence of in-person diagnosis and monitoring.
For a single missing tooth, implants and conventional bridges have similar, high survival over a decade. The evidence favours neither universally; the trade-offs are about neighbouring teeth, bone and cost.