Every article, in one place

• Whitening

  Do whitening strips damage your enamel?

  The side effects are sensitivity and sore gums, and they pass. The enamel evidence is mostly from the lab, and EU and UK shop kits are capped at 0.1% peroxide.

• Sensitivity

  Toothpaste for sensitive teeth: what actually works, and why

  No one toothpaste is the answer. Which active works which way, what the trials measured over weeks rather than days, and who paid for them.

• Evidence

  What the flossing evidence actually measured

  Thirty-five trials, 3,929 adults, and not one of them measured decay between the teeth. What the review found, what it never asked, and the test that transfers to any health claim.

• Evidence

  Do water flossers actually work?

  Four-week trials, most of them with a manufacturer’s employee on the author list, and a Cochrane review that says very low certainty. What was measured, and what never was.

• Evidence

  We checked all fourteen references on a supplement sales page

  Five of the fourteen were papers in peer-reviewed journals. Two of the rest didn't support the claim they were attached to. Here's how to run the check yourself.

• Supplements

  Do oral probiotics actually work?

  Oral probiotics are not gut probiotics. Which strains have research behind them, why colonisation is usually temporary, and the five questions that separate a formulated product from a marketed one.

• Fresh breath

  What causes bad breath?

  It's almost always the back of your tongue, not your stomach. The bacteria responsible, why mints and alcohol mouthwash make things worse, and how to check your own breath honestly.

• Gum health

  The early signs of gum disease

  Bleeding gums are not normal. The difference between the reversible stage and the one that permanently costs you bone — plus a two-week test you can run yourself.

• Gum health

  What causes receding gums?

  Gums don't grow back, but recession can nearly always be stopped. Why brushing harder is the wrong instinct, how to identify your cause, and what a dentist can genuinely do.

• Whitening

  Natural teeth whitening: what actually works

  Stain removal and bleaching are different things. A method-by-method assessment, and why the lemon-juice and charcoal tricks cost you enamel you can never get back.

• Remedies

  Oil pulling: what the trials actually measured

  Twenty-five trials, 1,184 people, nothing longer than 45 days — and what every one of them measured instead of the thing you actually care about.

• Dry mouth

  Dry mouth: causes and what helps

  Saliva is the most underrated thing in your mouth. Why losing it accelerates decay, why the cause is usually medication, and what genuinely helps.

• Daily habits

  Is mouthwash bad for you?

  Three different products share the shelf. One common habit cancels out your toothpaste entirely, and the daily antiseptic case is weaker than it looks.

• Gum health

  Plaque vs tartar: what's the difference?

  One is soft and yours to remove tonight. The other has been set hard by minerals from your own saliva, and only an instrument shifts it.

• Daily habits

  How often should you floss?

  Once a day. And about those headlines claiming flossing doesn't work — the studies were poor quality, which is not the same thing at all.

• Fresh breath

  Tongue scraping: what the evidence actually shows

  Two trials, forty people, and a Cochrane review withdrawn in 2016. The effect on breath is real, small, and gone within half an hour — which is still a reason to do it.

• Sensitivity

  What causes sensitive teeth?

  Enamel has no nerve; dentine does. What exposes it, why sensitivity toothpaste takes a fortnight, and the one pain pattern that means see someone now.

• Daily habits

  Are electric toothbrushes actually better?

  A real advantage in the research, and a modest one. The four numbers everyone quotes two of — and why technique still beats hardware.

• At the dentist

  What a dental cleaning actually does

  Scaling removes what you physically cannot: the hardened deposits below the gum margin. What polishing does, and why six months is a convention, not a rule.

• Everyday care

  Hydroxyapatite vs fluoride toothpaste for children

  One randomised trial, 207 children, funded by the manufacturer — and what a 20-point non-inferiority margin actually means. Plus the fluorosis numbers parents are really asking about.

• Everyday care

  Is hydroxyapatite toothpaste safe to swallow?

  The EU committee says yes, up to 29.5%, and raised its own limit in 2025. The conditions it attached about particle shape are the part nobody prints on the box.

• Everyday care

  Nano vs micro hydroxyapatite: what the label means

  Nano is a legal classification, not a quality grade. No human trial has compared the two forms in a mouth, and the trials that exist mostly used the one nobody advertises.

• Everyday care

  Do dentists recommend hydroxyapatite?

  No dental association endorses it, for a reason written into the rules rather than the science. Plus who funded all four trials, and why the review pooling them shares their authors.

• Everyday care

  Hydroxyapatite toothpaste brands compared

  Two of five brands publish their concentration. What each one actually says on its own site, why the percentages circulating online mostly come from affiliate round-ups, and how to read a label instead.

• Everyday care

  Hydroxyapatite toothpaste: does it actually work?

  Better evidence than most fluoride-free trends, and less than the marketing implies — including who funded the trials, and who wrote the review that pooled them.

• Everyday care

  Can teeth remineralise?

  Early damage can reverse; a cavity cannot. Where that line falls, why frequency beats quantity, and which claims trade on blurring the two.

• Everyday care

  Is xylitol actually good for your teeth?

  Better evidence than most dental trends, weaker than its marketing — where the “59%” really came from, and the cardiology argument nobody in dentistry mentions.

• Everyday care

  What causes enamel erosion?

  The acid arrives already made, so brushing does not prevent it. What sparkling water really does — and why the 30-minute rule turns out to be weaker than everyone says.

Tools

Five things you can use rather than read. Each one runs in your browser, sends nothing anywhere, and shows its working so you can check it.

• Tools

  Toothpaste ingredient decoder

  Paste what is printed on the back of the tube. It works out the fluoride strength in ppm, names the job each ingredient is doing, and flags the four worth a second look.

• Tools

  Toothpaste database

  One row per toothpaste: the fluoride salt and its ppm, the hydroxyapatite claim, the detergent and the full ingredient list, copied from the maker’s own page on a dated reading.

• Tools

  Bad breath: where is it coming from?

  Six questions, sorted into the four places mouth odour actually comes from — tongue, tonsils, gum pockets or dry mouth — with the point at which the answer is to see someone.

• Tools

  Health-claim reference checker

  Paste the citations from a sales page. Each is sorted by what it can be checked against — journal, agency, press release, retailer or nothing — with a link to open it.

• Tools

  Who paid for the trial?

  Every trial, review and guideline the site cites, with its funding statement and the authors’ declared interests quoted from the paper. Sortable, searchable, downloadable.

Games

Three small games, each about one idea. Nothing you do in a game leaves your browser, and every answer links to the article it came from.

• Games

  Marketing or evidence?

  Ten claims a day, as they would appear in an advert. Swipe or tap: not supported, or backed by decent evidence? Each verdict cites its source and links the article.

• Games

  48 Hours

  Plaque forms on eight teeth. Tap it off before the clock reaches 48 hours and it sets into tartar, which no brush removes. An arcade game about one fact.

• Games

  Mouth garden

  Your mouth is a garden of bacteria. Feed it, brush it, or try to nuke it clean and watch what grows back first. Thirty days to keep a balance, not a clean slate.

On ProDentim

Questions people ask before buying, answered without the sales pitch. These pages carry no affiliate link — only the review does, and it says so.

• The review

  ProDentim review: what's actually in it

  The real ingredient list, the undisclosed dose split, the pricing, and what happens when you check its reference list against the papers it cites.

• Ingredients

  ProDentim ingredients: what the label actually says

  The supplement facts panel transcribed line by line — what it discloses, what it pools, what it leaves out, and where it disagrees with the sales page.

• Safety

  ProDentim side effects: what to watch for

  Mostly a few days of bloating — and one ingredient causes that more often than the probiotics do. Plus who should ask a doctor first.

• Scepticism

  Is ProDentim a scam?

  Not in the fraud sense. But the marketing overstates the evidence — and nearly every page answering this question, including ours, is paid.

• Comparison

  ProDentim vs other oral probiotics

  No trial has tested ProDentim, so effectiveness cannot be compared. Disclosure can: strain designations, per-strain doses, and whether the filed label agrees with the sales page.

Diagrams

Every article here gets an original diagram drawn for it. They are collected on one page and free to reuse — on a practice website, in a patient handout or a lecture — provided you credit us with a link.

Free oral-health diagrams →

More articles are in progress. If there's a dental question you've never found a straight answer to, that's exactly the sort of thing we want to cover.