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Thread: Gel that makes teeth repair themselves could spell the end of fillings

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    Senior Member Aragorn's Avatar
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    Thumbs Up Gel that makes teeth repair themselves could spell the end of fillings

    Source: NewScientist





    Tooth enamel can now be made to repair itself by applying a special gel. The product could save people from developing cavities that require dental fillings.

    Enamel is the hard, protective layer on the outside of teeth. It can be worn down by mouth acid and repeated chewing, leading to cavities that have to be plugged with fillings to prevent further decay.

    Because fillings are made from foreign materials like metal, porcelain and resin, they don’t bind seamlessly to the tooth surface and often become loose.

    To overcome this problem, Ruikang Tang at Zhejiang University in China and his colleagues made a gel containing calcium and phosphate – the building blocks of real enamel – to try to encourage teeth to self-repair.

    They tested the gel by applying it to human teeth that had been removed from patients and damaged with acid. They then left the teeth in containers of fluid designed to mimic the mouth environment for 48 hours.



    New crystals

    During this time, the gel stimulated the growth of new enamel, with microscopy revealing that it had the same highly ordered arrangement of calcium and phosphate crystals as regular enamel.

    This is probably because in normal tooth development, the emerging enamel is coated in a disordered layer of calcium and phosphate particles – like in the gel – that encourages its growth, says Tang.

    The new enamel coating was only 3 micrometres thick, which is about 400 times thinner than undamaged enamel. But Tang says the gel could be repeatedly applied to build up this repair layer.

    Several other groups have tried to repair tooth enamel with calcium and phosphate mixtures, but they contained larger particle clusters that didn’t cling well to the tooth surface, says Tang. This made it difficult for the enamel crystals to re-build, he says.

    The team is now testing the gel in mice and hopes to later test it in people. They will need to make sure the chemicals in the gel are safe and that new enamel can form in the real-life mouth environment, even when people eat and drink, Tang says.



    Journal reference: Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw9569


    Source: NewScientist
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    Senior Member Norway Elen's Avatar
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    This would be really interesting........but what will the dentists do? If you know how to get it Aragorn...please send me a PM about it, hey?

    Whatever is true. Whatever is noble. Whatever is right. Whatever is lovely. Whatever is admirable. Anything of excellence and worthy of praise. Dwell on these things. Jesus Christ (I agree)

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    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
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    that's pretty remarkable..If that had happened 30 years ago, it could have saved me a lot of grief, not to mention money.
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

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    Senior Member Aragorn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Elen View Post
    This would be really interesting........but what will the dentists do? If you know how to get it Aragorn...please send me a PM about it, hey?

    I am hopeful that it will quickly be approved and that it will trickle down to our own dentists here in the West. The Chinese are not as pussyfooted when it comes to science as the western bureaucrats are.
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    Senior Member United States Dreamtimer's Avatar
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    The Chinese are not as pussyfooted...
    I like that as an adjective very much.

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    Senior Member Emil El Zapato's Avatar
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    Chinese approach to medicine is very different...I'm sure I've mentioned this before but as a marketer I worked with Chinese Ph.Ds and M.D.s which was fun. I think I saw it here...maybe not...The U.S. Military is using accupuncture as a pain reliever on the battlefield, when anesthetics are in short supply.
    “El revolucionario: te meteré la bota en el culo"

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    Senior Member United States Dreamtimer's Avatar
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    I've already had cavities and fillings such that this therapy may or may not be of much use. But I bet my son would be all over it if available. He has good teeth and takes good care of them.

    Maybe whitening and this gel could be done simultaneously.

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    Senior Member Aragorn's Avatar
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    Quote Originally posted by Dreamtimer View Post
    I've already had cavities and fillings such that this therapy may or may not be of much use.
    It would still be, because it can replace the fillings with naturally formed enamel, and your teeth would get stronger because of it.
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