The Rise and Impending Fall of the Dental Cavity
10th April 2024
When a tool came along to decisively eliminate smallpox, it was gone within a few short decades. The immense human cost of caries has to make you wonder: why haven’t we eliminated them yet? Given the conditions that were needed to drive out smallpox and rinderpest, we have to ask: do we have tools for caries?
Brush your teeth. That’s what you’re supposed to do, but does it work?
I think it significant that the teeth are the only organ in the body that has its own brand of doctor (DDS) instead of being just a specialty of MD, like eyes and bones and the brain and whatever. (I also find it puzzling that ‘dental’ is a separate type of insurance than ‘medical’.)