Most athletes wearing a mouth guard are wearing one because a coach told them to, not because they've thought much about what it's doing. A guard is a guard. Put it in, play the game. The difference between a boil-and-bite guard from the sporting goods store and a custom guard made from your actual dental impressions is more meaningful than most people realise — and it shows up in ways...
Read MoreEveryone wants whiter teeth. The options for getting there at home range from genuinely effective to basically useless, depending on what you buy, how you use it, and what type of discoloration you're actually dealing with. There's also a significant amount of marketing noise in this space. Here's a straight breakdown of each method, what it does, and how to have realistic expectations before you spend money on something that...
Read MoreYou spent months — maybe years — in braces. You did the appointments, the tightening visits, the list of foods you couldn't eat. The braces finally come off and your teeth look exactly how they were supposed to. Then your orthodontist hands you a retainer and says something like: you'll need to wear this indefinitely. Indefinitely. After all of that. It's understandable to feel like that's a lot. It's also...
Read MoreA retainer does its job invisibly, which means most people don't think about cleaning it until something goes wrong. That usually means a smell that wasn't there when it was new, a cloudiness that didn't used to be there, or a yellow tint that no amount of rinsing seems to fix. All of these are preventable with the right routine. There's also a fair amount of bad advice floating around,...
Read MoreYou already brush twice a day. You know you should floss. And somewhere in the middle of all that, there's a nagging question: would a water flosser just be easier — and is it actually better? It's a fair thing to wonder. Water flossers have gotten significantly more popular, they're recommended by dentists, and they look a lot more satisfying to use than a piece of string you keep forgetting...
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