Children with oral clefts show a wide range of dental anomalies, adding complexity to understanding the phenotypic spectrum of orofacial clefting. The evidence is mixed however on whether the prevalence of dental anomalies is elevated in unaffected relatives, and is mostly based on small samples. This study by researchers Brian J. Howe, Margaret E. Cooper, Alexandre R. Vieira, Seth M. Weinberg, Judith Resick, Nichole Nidey, George L. Wehby, Mary L. Marazita and Lina Moreno Uribe characterizes the spectrum of cleft-related dental anomalies and evaluates whether families with clefting have a significantly higher risk for such anomalies compared to the general population. A total of 3,811 individuals were included with the breakdown being 660 cases with clefts, 1,922 unaffected relatives and 1,229 controls.

When your tooth enamel is damaged, the inner layer gets exposed, and dental decay can start. Cavities are not the only problem.  Teeth with damaged tooth enamel can react to extreme heat or cold. Eating ice cream or sipping hot coffee can be a painful, or at least unpleasant.

Some health conditions can damage your tooth enamel. Enamel erosion can happen from the eating disorder such as bulimia, Acid reflux, stomach problems, and other eating disorders, when stomach acid enters the mouth because of frequent vomiting.

A new technology which could increase protection against antibacterial and antifungal infection for weeks, months or years has been developed by researchers at the University of Bristol.

The technology is likely to have significant impact across a number of areas including dentistry, where one in seven composite fillings fail within seven years and 86 percent of these failures are caused by bacterial infection.

As hard as your tooth enamel is, it can be breached. Acids from foods and bacteria eat away at the tooth enamel, causing erosion and cavities.  Tooth enamel can also be chipped or cracked. Unlike bone, however it does not grow back on its own. The damage is permanent.

Your tooth enamel might seem white, but really it is clear. Light can shine through it. The layer underneath, dentin, shows through, and that is what makes a tooth look light or dark.      However, over time, coffee, tea, wine, cigarettes, and other substances can stain the outer layer of your teeth a dingy yellow or gray. Maintaining healthy dental care habits at home and seeing a dentist regularly will help to keep your teeth looking white

Researchers have uncovered evidence of food and potential respiratory irritants entrapped in the dental tartar of 400,000-year-old teeth at Qesem Cave near Tel Aviv, the site of many major discoveries from the late Lower Paleolithic period. The research provides direct evidence of what early Palaeolithic people ate and the quality of the air they breathed inside Qesem Cave.

Many dental hygienists across the country visit schools during the academic school year to teach youngsters about oral hygiene. It may be time to teach chewing instead, especially to the younger kids and particularly to young and expectant mothers. A few of the valuable benefits of chewing are listed below.

Chewing can be affected by insufficient nasal breathing (due to enlarged lymph tissue like tonsils and adenoids) and impacts the function of the following:

* Temporomandibular joint (TMJ)
* Muscle tension and tone
* Dental occlusion or malocclusion
* Saliva production or lack of
* Neurological or genetic disorders such as strokes, hemiparesis, hemifacial  microsomia, and traumatic brain injury

Dentists treating patients with chronic periodontitis, a severe form of gum disease that can lead to tooth loss, are advised to use scaling and root planing (SRP), deep cleaning of the teeth, as initial treatment, according to new guidelines from the American Dental Association (ADA). The guidelines, based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of treatment of periodontitis, were published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA).

A new study is calling on dental teams to alert parents to the oral health risk of sharing spoons with toddlers at mealtimes.

It coincides with the latest figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre that show nearly 26,000 children, aged five to nine, were admitted to hospital in England in 2013-14 with tooth decay.

This has increased by 14% since 2011 – a ‘crisis point’ according to the Royal College of Surgeons’ dental faculty.

Now dental therapists are warning that children’s oral health must begin at home, with parents and caregivers given a comprehensive education if preventive measures are to be successful.

Dentures, known as false teeth, are prosthetics constructed to replace missing teeth. Fitting removable dentures is a long and painful process in which a patient has to visit the clinic multiple times so that soft and hard plastic material, resembling silly putty, can be used to take exact measurements of her mouth. Failure to take exact measurements causes discomfort and pain. Now researchers report that this time can be cut way back with the use of 3D digital scanning techniques.

Is it possible that too much iron in infant formula may potentially increase risk for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s in adulthood — and are teeth the window into the past that can help us tell?

Manish Arora, BDS, MPH, PhD, Director of Exposure Biology at the Senator Frank Lautenberg Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory at Mount Sinai and Associate Professor in Preventive Medicine and Dentistry at the Icahn School of Medicine stated “Teeth are of particular interest to us for the measurement of chemical exposure in fetal and childhood development: they provide a chronological record of exposure from their microchemical composition in relation to defined growth lines, much like the rings in a tree trunk”

Some of the first signs of gum disease is blood on your toothbrush, your gums may also bleed when you are eating and a bad taste in your mouth.

Some good news is that gum disease can be treated and even reversed with the correct dental care but the first thing you need to do if you have these symptoms is visit your dental office for a thorough check-up of your teeth and gums.

Our dentist will regularly reminded us about the importance of cleaning between our teeth with dental floss, but this recent study shows that an astonishing amount of us are failing to floss daily.

Education is important, therefore teach your kids to floss and be clear about the benefits regular flossing can have. Flossing alongside with regular dentist visits and brushing twice a day will help keep your family teeth and oral health in good shape.  Better at home dental habits also mean reducing your risk of having more costly dental care needs in the future.

According to a recent survey, it reveals that more than a quarter of us admit to lying to our dentist about our flossing and dental care habits.

The study reveals that 27 per cent of us lie to our dentists on a regular basis, telling them that we floss every day. Astonishingly the findings also show that 14 per cent find cleaning the toilet more appealing than flossing every day.

Dry mouth is the result of low-producing or non-functioning salivary glands. The often devastating condition known as xerostomia. Dry mouth has a number of causes, including medication use, radiation treatment for head and neck cancers, autoimmune diseases, diabetes and the process of aging.

Millions of people in the US suffer with dry mouth, a very uncomfortable feeling of insufficient saliva in the mouth that can lead to serious health problems. Now, there is the promise of relief, as a new study shows how with the help of silk fibers it may be possible to generate new salivary glands out of stem cells.

PhD Researcher Yeshwanth Pulijala harnesses 3D visualisation to help oral and maxillofacial surgical trainees to perform complex medical procedures

A UNIVERSITY of Huddersfield researcher is harnessing the very latest virtual reality technology to train surgeons.  The project aims to provide accurate graphical visualisations of human anatomy and surgical procedures via state-of-the-art headsets.

According to a new study, access to dental care by low-income Americans has become the exception, rather than the rule, as fewer dentists accept Medicaid.

More than two percent of all emergency department visits are now related to nontraumatic dental conditions, according to a study by researchers at Stanford University, the University of California-San Francisco, Truven Health Analytics and the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.