Falls Church Smiles

Humans are born without teeth, most of the time. They sprout 20 baby teeth, most of the time. Those baby teeth shed, and then we get 32 adult teeth – 16 on top and 16 on the bottom, most of the time. I say most of the time because odd things happen

I was an April fool this year. On my April 1 blog I talked about hyperdontia as a friend had sent me a very cool photo of what I thought was hyperdontia, but it was a fake. Dr. Urban could tell right away, and now that he’s pointed it out I can see

There are a few kinds of aspiration, one is where you aspire to do more with your life, get a better job, help humanity, that kinda thing. But the kind of aspiration we are often concerned with in the dental office is the kind where a person sucks

Instead of tying her tooth to a door, she tied it to a toy bow & arrow and shot the tooth out. Brilliant!

Take a look at this link and you can see the whole thing. 

While we don’t recommend this method for removing baby teeth, I

What’s black and white and a hundred and twelve years old? The King of Cambodia’s dentures.

I found this story by Daniel Demers, on Dr. Bicuspid.com very interesting, and worth a read if you get a chance.

In Thailand it is tough for the average kid to afford braces. This has made braces a sign of wealth. Since braces are a sign of wealth it follows that braces might also become fashionable. However, it seems kids in Thailand might be taking this a

Since I have been working in dentistry for a quarter century I thought I had heard of every possible dental condition, but last week a patient had a condition that I had never heard of - dens en dente. Actually, Dr. Urban didn’t call it dens en

We all know that Muhammad Ali was the greatest heavy weight boxing champion of all time. What I didn’t know was that he was also a champion for children’s dental health.

While we were on vacation I found this story about a teenager in India who had 232 teeth removed. I thought surely this was another hyperdontia hoax, (like my blog posting here) but after checking several sources the story seems

I recently saw a report about a person’s eyesight being restored via a tooth. Googling it came up with many pertinent stories, but I liked the one from LaughingSquid.com the best:

“The procedure, known as osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis, has two

How great are these teeth?

For about 40 bucks you too can have these hideous teeth, or another version that is just as scary and ugly. They are made by a company called Dental Distortions, and you can order them online at

Geographic Tongue is a new term for me. This came up in the office today as one of Cerina’s friend’s kids has a spotted tongue. Dr. Urban mentioned that it could be Geographic Tongue, so I had to look it up.

Apparently it’s not a harmful condition

Today on NPR I heard a story about an attention researcher at Harvard Medical School. This fellow, Trafton Drew, tested how radiologists focus when they are looking for something specific.

Drew took, “a picture of a man in gorilla suit shaking his

According to the Alaska TV station, KTVA, “Prosecutors say an Alaska dentist charged with Medicaid fraud pulled a sedated patient’s tooth while riding a hoverboard”

The X-Ray shown here is of a 12 year old boy's teeth. You can see his first molar with two roots on the right side of the pic. In the middle is tooth #20 a single rooted bicuspid. However, an untrained eye might see two roots. That’s because the

We all know that sharks can regrow their teeth, but what might be news is that humans possess the same genes that allow sharks to regenerate teeth! Some researchers in the UK have, “ identified a network of genes that are responsible for tooth

What do methamphetamine addicts and Olympic athletes have in common? More dental problems than the rest of the population, and weirdly it is seemingly for a similar reason.

This morning I found an interesting article on the Atlantic.com website. It

Lately we have seen an increase in cavities in young people who are high school and college-aged. Kids who have had one or two cavities in their entire lives are coming in with five, six, seven, maybe eight cavities. The kids are surprised and their

“A woman in Wisconsin got a nasty bacterial infection in her knee, but the infection's source was an unexpected culprit: her vigorous tooth-flossing regimen”

Ewww, really, bacon flavored floss? Blech. Don’t get me wrong, I love bacon. It’s delicious on its own, it’s fabu in green beans, and what could be better wrapped around a scallop? But when I brush I want my mouth to feel minty fresh. Is bacony