Whilst some people prefer a manual toothbrush, an electric toothbrush is an almost ubiquitous piece of dental equipment in both clinics and bathrooms alike. However, it is a far older invention than many expect, with the first ever electric toothbrush being made as early as 1937. Its inventor, Tomlinson Mosely, called it the Motodent, but despite the idea clearly being popular enough to endure today, it was not a popular toothbrush at all. Part of the problem is that it needed to be plugged in to use, and at a time when many houses did not have electricity let alone...

Dentists often have to deal with nervous patients, even though people can benefit from the most modern technology and products to look after their oral health. A new survey by Space Dental has indicated the extent of the problem, Dentistry Magazine reports. The survey revealed that 52 per cent of adults are scared of a visit to the dentist, with the most common reasons for this being the fear of pain (cited by 48 per cent), fear of drilling (41 per cent) and cost (37 per cent). There were notable variations in age and geography when it came to dental...

With many dental products, the smallest of differences can have a big impact and nowhere is that clearer than when it comes to the type of toothbrush you choose. Choosing the best toothbrush depends on a wide range of factors that are almost impossible to see but are noticeable on your teeth and gums and can affect your dental health when used for long enough. Generally, the most important part of a toothbrush when it comes to dental health is the bristles, both in terms of positioning but also in terms of rigidity. Toothbrushes are grouped in terms of having...

Because a lot of dental equipment has somewhat unusual origins, a lot of unlikely events can lead to major revolutions in how they are made and used. A good example of this is retainers, which are not only important mouthpieces in their own right but also require complex impression equipment to make and cleaning tablets to maintain and keep clean. However, one of the biggest moments in the history of dental retainers was a rather unfortunate accident in the boxing ring involving another type of dental mouthpiece. In modern dentistry, the development of custom mouthguards and custom retainers are very...

Dentists always advise that you should change your toothbrush every three or four months, if it is a standard, manual one. This is because bristles tend to flatten and therefore stop hitting the places where they are needed to get debris out of small gaps between your teeth. However, rather than just exchanging one manual brush for another, now may be the time to switch to a rechargeable electric toothbrush. Quite simply, these are regarded by dentists everywhere as being a much better option than manual ones. For example, speaking to Canadian health website Cnet, dentist Dr Shahrooz Yazdani said:...

The world of computer games is an almost completely separate world from the world of dentistry, although one video game system has a surprising role to play in digital dentistry, Outside of a few cross-promotional dental products and some very obscure games such as Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon, there are not a lot of direct connections, but the failure of one video game system led to the creation of a digital camera. The Imagin Systems HotRod Deluxe camera system was a 1997 intraoral camera that could provide high-quality images that were saved onto a proprietary memory cartridge. However, the casing...