The people of Kansas will soon have more access to dental care. Governor Sam Brownback recently signed a bill into law that will help the state deal with a shortage of dentists. Dental hygienists will soon have an increased role in dealing with tooth decay because there are currently 93 counties that don't have enough dentists. There are 13 counties that don't have any dentists. This bill could have

Freshwater crayfish have an enamel-like layer on their mandibles, according to new research. A team of Israeli and German researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces made the discovery. The information appears in Nature Communications. This particular species of crayfish protects its teeth by generating a high-mineral coating base

The pufferfish provides researchers with plenty of information about human teeth. Research shows that the deadly fish—a fish that hasn't evolved—undergoes continued tooth replacement after the first generation of teeth. But the ensuing teeth modify and cause the animal to develop a beak that would generally be seen on parrots. This information backs up the idea that evolution doesn't make jumps,

Solid early dental care turns bad quickly in Finland. In the Helsinki region of Finland, about 40 percent of people ages 18 to 29 have not seen a dentist in the last five years. Low-income people and those with a poor education are least likely to see the dentist. This is a stark contrast to the way children are brought up in Finland. School-age children generally have excellent dental care because

Men are more likely to have one of the major risk factors for oral cancer. A Journal of the American Medical Association study indicated that more men than women have the human papilloma virus. The study analyzed information for 5,500 people and about 10 percent of the men had HPV compared to just 3.6 percent of the women. The information came from people ages 14 to 69. HPV is widely accepted as a c