Teeth

Many of us have had a tooth pulled in the dentist's chair, and even with anesthetic, it's not pleasant. So spare a thought for the people who, for millennia, chose to have good teeth yanked out with no painkillers – all in the name of beauty (mainly).

Nightmare fuel? Maybe – but in a historic moment for the dental profession, an AI-controlled autonomous robot has performed an entire procedure on a human patient for the first time, about eight times faster than a human dentist could do it.

As if Komodo dragons didn't seem ferocious enough already, scientists have now discovered that the reptiles tear through flesh using a coating of iron on their teeth. It is now believed that dinosaurs such as T. rex may have been similarly endowed.

Flossing your teeth on a daily basis can be a time-consuming, fiddly task. The Flaus electric flosser is designed to change that, as it reportedly allows users to perform a thorough and easy flossing in less than one minute.

The world's first human trial of a drug that can regenerate teeth will begin in a few months, less than a year on from news of its success in animals. This paves the way for the medicine to be commercially available as early as 2030.

Most of us picture megalodon as a Jason-Statham-hunting monster that looked like a giant great white shark, but that probably wasn’t the case. A new study re-examines fossil evidence and suggests the creature was longer and more slender than thought.

The most comprehensive genetic map of oral stem cells to date has provided new insight into their specialized development pathways and opens the door to targeted regenerative medicine and interventions, such as therapies to grow or repair bone.

Researchers have examined the teeth of Swedish Vikings and found that aside from decay and loss, they engaged in surprisingly advanced dental practices not dissimilar from modern practices. The study provides a rare insight into Viking life.

While gingivitis can lead to tooth loss, the bacteria responsible for the gum disease can also enter the bloodstream and cause heart disease. That's why early detection is important, which is where a new home testing kit may soon come in.

We can’t regenerate damaged tooth enamel, but scientists have now grown mini teeth in the lab that secrete enamel-producing proteins. This could be the first step towards “living fillings” that patch up cavities, or even lab-grown replacement teeth.

Humans have done remarkably well in evolutionary terms, but one design flaw has to be our inability to replace lost teeth throughout our lives. Now, scientists believe they have the antibody treatment to do just that, and it could be available by 2030.

Avoiding eating your favorite ice cream because you don’t want to experience the pain caused by sensitive teeth may soon be a thing of the past, with researchers offering a. long-term fix by developing a novel way of rebuilding lost tooth minerals.