Health

“You don’t have to get technical about it,” said Ellie Phillips, a preventive dentist based in Austin. “But I would recommend noting if it’s something affecting your front teeth or the back of your mouth. Is it on the outside, which is the cheek side, or is it on the tongue side?”Visual aids like X-rays or images from an intraoral camera — or even just looking in a mirror — can also help demystify what’s going on in your mouth.Don’t feel pressured to agree to anything — even cleanings.Your dentist should be able to explain why particular problem areas need specific treatments, said Alyson Leffel, director of patient advocacy and social work at the NYU College of Dentistry. And it’s perfectly reasonable to ask them for time to research and reflect on your options.Not every child or adult n...

If you live in a city or suburb, it can be hard to feel surrounded by nature. But next time you step outside, pause, look and listen — even in the most densely populated areas, birds are almost omnipresent. And no matter where you live, that can be a kind of magic, especially during nesting season.“Rarely do we get this opportunity to get a front-row seat to a wild organism starting its life,” says Brian Evans, a migratory bird ecologist and project lead at the bird observatory at the Smithsonian National Zoo. “All we have to do is start noticing.”But having an avian neighbor can raise a host of questions, including how best to monitor a nest, how to keep it safe and what to do in case of nest abandonment.According to Chad Witko, a senior coordinator of avian biology at the National Audub...

It was 20 years ago exactly on this date, April 15, 2004, Tax Day. President George W. Bush and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, had both released their 2003 tax returns two days earlier. And that night was the season finale of NBC’s new hit reality TV show, “The Apprentice.” The show had premiered in January and for 15 consecutive weeks, every Thursday night, America was exposed to 60 minutes of a man properly dismissed in New York as an empty self-promoter, but who conned the country to believe that he really was a business genius. Seeing some of the titles of the episodes two decades later makes you smirk and wince: “Meet the Billionaire” was the 90-minute premiere, followed the likes of “Sex, Lies and Altitude,” “Respect,” “Ethics Schmethics,” “Dupe-Lex (a.k.a. Real Real Es...

General Daily Insight for April 15, 2024 Let the heart heal. The emotional Moon blends well with both expansive Jupiter and innovative Uranus, enlightening our perspectives on how we handle our emotions and express ourselves in positive ways. Issues can be smoothed over as communicative Mercury conjoins careful Chiron at 11:23 am EDT. We’re capable of liberating ourselves without losing a sense of connection. As the capstone, the Moon harmonizes with Neptune to add a dose of creativity and intuition to our mindset revamp. Emotional healing is here! Aries March 21 – April 19 You’re learning to be independent because you can, not because you have to. There’s a difference between being in survival mode, grinding every day so that you don’t fall behind and risk failure or punishment, and m...

Scottie Scheffler has won the 2024 Masters Tournament, joining the select group of 17 golfers who have earned the title twice in their careers. With Sunday's victory, Scheffler is the fourth-youngest golfer to win multiple green jackets, behind Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Seve Ballesteros.Scheffler is living in rarefied air. He finished the 88th Masters at 11-under and won by four strokes. The victory made it three wins in his last four events and his second major victory in his previous three trips to Augusta.Masters debutant Ludvig Åberg finished second at 7-under. Max Homa, Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood finished in a tie for third at 4-under.Scheffler went off as the betting favorite at +400. Since 1985, only one golfer (Tiger Woods in 2005) had gotten off at +450 odds or shor...

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).For some seniors, retirement brings the unbridled joy of more time with loved ones — but for others, the golden years can end up being quite blue.More than a third of older adults said they feel lonely at least once a week, according to the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging.The U.S. Surgeon General even called loneliness and social isolation a "serious health epidemic" in his Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community.HEALTH CARE IS ‘OVERWHELMINGLY COMPLEX’ FOR OLDER ADULTS, EXPERTS SAY: ‘EVER-INCREASING HURDLE’"The transition from a structured work life to retirement can lead...

Two days after a fire burned a rental home to the ground in Brookings, Ore., Aubrie Krause was at the scene conducting an investigation.She heard a small whimper coming from beneath a trailer near the charred remnants of the home.Krause, a deputy fire marshal for the state of Oregon, crouched down to get a closer look and saw a frightened puppy hiding. She knew that no people were injured in the Feb. 28 fire, but three dogs had died. She also learned that there were four unaccounted for puppies that might have survived.She figured the whimpering puppy was one of them, and coaxed the pup out, giving her a granola bar from her pocket.Krause began looking around the property for the other puppies when she spotted a little black dog high on a hill between two trees.As Krause approached, her h...

Singer Nelly Furtado was able to laugh off her onstage fall at Coachella this weekend despite suffering a bloody thumb in the accident. The 45-year-old Canadian artist posted a video of her stumbling to the floor and popping right back up during her performance of “Eat Your Man,” a song she made with Australian producer Dom Dolla. She doesn’t appear to miss a beat in the performance, continuing to sing right through the incident. “Eat your man…not the stage,” she wrote over the video, adding a crying/laughing emoji. A previous post to her story showed the bloody finger that resulted from the fall. “Literally left it all on the stage,” she wrote, “including my blood.” The video was long enough to show she was all smiles and seemingly unfazed by the injury. “This Barbie like to rave,” ...