Author: Saroash Shahid, Reader in Dental Materials, Queen Mary University of London

Hryshchyshen Serhii/Shutterstock.com Ancient Egyptians and Etruscans pioneered orthodontics, using delicate gold wires and catgut to straighten teeth. It’s a tale that has appeared in dentistry textbooks for decades, portraying our ancestors as surprisingly modern in their pursuit of the perfect smile. But when archaeologists and dental historians finally scrutinised the evidence, they discovered that most […]

You brush twice daily, floss religiously and see your dentist every six months. But what if these acts of oral hygiene are quietly contributing to one of the planet’s most pressing environmental crises? A growing body of research reveals that our pursuit of clean, healthy teeth comes with an unexpected cost: we’re washing billions of […]