[HN Gopher] Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel
___________________________________________________________________
Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel
Author : beefman
Score : 64 points
Date : 2021-05-29 22:15 UTC (45 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (dental.washington.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (dental.washington.edu)
| Tempest1981 wrote:
| > The lozenge produces new enamel that is whiter than what tooth-
| whitening strips or gels produce.
|
| I wonder how white?
|
| I'm a bit nervous about having those over-whitened glow-in-the-
| dark teeth, that you sometimes see. Memories of that _Friends_
| episode, too.
| [deleted]
| bamboozled wrote:
| Who are you talking to ?
| redisman wrote:
| My coffee habit will make short work of any overly white teeth.
| endisneigh wrote:
| Assuming this works, isn't this pretty much game over for
| dentists? I'm aware that dentists do more than fillings, but it
| seems like there would be a serious contraction, even if this
| costed something like $1000 a tooth after insurance.
|
| That being said, even if this worked, it's not like it's instant,
| so you still have to be careful with your teeth. I wonder how
| this differs from novamin, which supposedly does the same thing
| and you can already purchase now.
| johnkpaul wrote:
| Hah I felt this same way when I discovered you can change your
| diet to basically completely remove all dental problems. I
| doubt society can possible change quickly enough for us to see
| the downfall of the profession.
| killermouse0 wrote:
| Would you care to elaborate on those diet changes?
| wyager wrote:
| Eliminate things bacteria can efficiently metabolize,
| consume things that humans can efficiently metabolize.
| Namely, eliminate saccharides (sugar, plant starches, etc.)
| and get your calories from fat instead. Improved dentition
| is only one of many benefits.
| joshuahughes wrote:
| Presumably no sugar being the primary factor. No carbs too?
| sitzkrieg wrote:
| sugar doesn't cause cavities, acids do. some bacteria which
| is not uniformly present in people eats carbs and deposits
| acids. this is covered in great detail ina good book, "kiss
| your dentist goodbye" that i just read. ive seen
| improvements in my awful teeth after giving the free
| regimen a try
| johnkpaul wrote:
| Yeah, extreme no sugar and no carb, almost pure carnivore.
| Haven't had a bit of tooth decay since.
| Applejinx wrote:
| Also, presumably, drink water. That can't hurt.
| kaybe wrote:
| I have a friend with extreme food restrictions, they can
| mostly only eat animal products (plus white rice and very
| few other things). They also cannot brush their teeth
| regularly due to disability - yet their teeth look
| fantastic!
| johnkpaul wrote:
| Yup this is me
| sebmellen wrote:
| Xylitol rinses are great too. Xylitol seems to function as
| a sort of "probiotic" for the mouth.
| sithadmin wrote:
| It's sort of the opposite of a probiotic. In many
| organisms, including many non-human mammals, it short-
| circuits normal metabolic processes. Xylitol-sweetened
| products will easily sicken, and frequently kill cats and
| dogs, for instance.
| sebmellen wrote:
| Yes, you're right, it's more of an antibiotic, but it
| seems to have a balancing effect on the oral microbiome.
|
| The research is still nascent and inconclusive, though.
| Here's an interesting study:
| https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17263856/.
| hungryforcodes wrote:
| When I was two years old -- apparently, I only heard it
| from the obvious source -- my mother went to a doctor and
| asked when she could start giving me candy. I'm dating
| myself but this was before 1990. Anyways, he said, "Never!
| Never give him candy. He'll develop a sweet tooth and it's
| game over for his teeth!".
|
| Again paraphrasing and dramatizing, but you get the idea.
|
| So my mom never gave me anything with sugar. To this day I
| don't eat any sweets and I have no cavities or tooth
| problems. I eat ice cream once a year, and mostly because
| people seem to like shaming me for not liking it. I always
| just have a couple of bites.
|
| From the age of 5 to 10 I grew up on a boat in the
| Caribbean and South and Central America, and can't remember
| brushing my teeth once. It sounds weird I know. I brush
| once or twice a day now.
|
| Anyways my teeth are in great shape.
| Blammar wrote:
| This is from memory, so could be wrong.
|
| The goal is to starve the streptococcus mutans bacteria in
| your mouth. Since that lives off sugar and starch, you both
| (a) rinse your mouth with a bactericidal (b) brush teeth,
| tongue, and gums after ingesting any sugar or starch.
|
| The downside is excessive bactericidal use or brushing can
| damage your mouth tissues and teeth.
|
| Another approach I had heard about but have no further info
| was to be vaccinated against S. mutans, so presumably your
| saliva would attack it somehow. I don't understand the
| mechanism here.
|
| In the meantime, I use a prescription dose of fluoride
| toothpaste daily to harden the hydroxyapatite in my mouth.
| johnkpaul wrote:
| :-) my approach is just to not eat any sugar or starch but
| definitely agree with mechanism.
| wyager wrote:
| You can also just quit eating saccharides. Incidentally (or
| perhaps not), this has a lot of positive effects besides
| improving dental health. It's a first line treatment for
| many metabolic disorders like diabetes and even many cases
| of epilepsy. It resolves many digestive issues, as it
| reduces or eliminates most things humans can't easily
| metabolize (plant fiber, large sugar molecules, etc.). It
| helps with weight management because most human groups have
| not yet evolved an appropriately tuned satiety response to
| saccharides.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| Unfortunately, no. These only deposit a couple micrometers of
| enamel per day if used twice daily. They could potentially help
| as a form of preventative maintenance, but reversing
| significant dental cavities seems unlikely.
| endisneigh wrote:
| That seems like a lot though. Let's say it's just 1
| micrometer per day. A tooth is about 10mm (10,000
| micrometers). So over a period of about 28 years all of your
| teeth's enamel can be completely restored?
|
| Given that most people don't lose all of the enamel of any of
| their teeth it seems like there wouldn't be any point of
| going to a dentist. By the time you're getting the age where
| you'd even think about dentures, this treatment would
| completely reverse all tooth decay no?
| kaybe wrote:
| I feel problems with gums and other areas don't get
| stressed enough in childhood. There are plenty of other
| problems that are not enamel-related, and I'd guess you can
| easily still have trouble with enamel even with this
| treatment.
| saurik wrote:
| Tooth decay isn't a generic slow wearing down of all of
| your enamel but instead a concentrated attack on a small
| location of enamel from food for example being consistently
| stuck in a small fissure. A big thing you use dentists for
| is managing plaque that makes these issues worse, and
| probably also will help block the effects of these
| lozenges. Polishing your teeth actually _removes_ small
| quantities of enamel with the goal of making the teeth a
| bit smoother so there are less places for things to get
| stuck. Dentists also are dealing with issues where your
| teeth get cracked or otherwise damaged from grinding or
| hard foods. I can 't imagine just indiscriminately throwing
| layers of enamel at the problem is going to leave you in a
| solve where "there wouldn't be any point of going to a
| dentist".
| danschumann wrote:
| Will this help Mitch Hedberg enthusiasts realize his dream of
| having just two long curvy teeth?
| Hamuko wrote:
| > _In addition, the researchers are investigating a gel or
| solution with the engineered peptide to treat hypersensitive
| teeth. This problem results from weakness in the enamel that
| makes the underlying dentin and nerves more vulnerable to heat or
| cold. Most common products currently on the market can put a
| layer of organic material on the tooth and numb nerve endings
| with potassium nitrate, but the relief is only temporary. The
| peptide, however, addresses the problem permanently at its source
| by strengthening the enamel._
|
| I want this so badly.
|
| I've never had a cavity despite my poor dental hygiene habits and
| lack of dental practice visits but apparently I suffer from
| bruxism that can make half of my teeth hurt whenever I bite on
| anything harder than a wet noodle. Just now I brushed my teeth
| with a pain-numbing toothpaste and just the act of brushing my
| teeth made them hurt. Although sometimes I can go for some time
| without pain, it's been pretty much a constant in my life for the
| last years.
| Black101 wrote:
| Please get those crooked dentists out of work, as much as
| possible.
| rubyist5eva wrote:
| Let me guess..dentists should provide their valuable services
| free of charge because...?
| VierScar wrote:
| Crooked dentists? Is this some sort of conspiracy theory?
| Dentists are medical professionals, who have been needed since
| the dark ages, and nowadays have very complex equipment and
| technology to ensure the best long-term and life-like suitable
| treatments for people.
|
| What are you on about?
| 542458 wrote:
| To be fair, dentists do engage in what really looks like
| price fixing (at least where I am, and to an outside eye).
| Every dentist here charges the exact same amount, regardless
| of whether they're in the middle of a high-income
| metropolitan area or in bumkinville.
|
| Also every once in a while you see some real horror stories
| of dentists doing unnecessary procedures on sedated patients,
| and although the extreme cases are absolutely the exception,
| I always do have to wonder if I actually need the (often
| expensive) treatments they recommend.
| bpodgursky wrote:
| Ehhh... dentists (even the not-obvious-scam ones) are
| notorious for overprescribing expensive and invasive
| unnecessary treatments.
|
| They are medical professionals of course, and few are
| recommending completely nonsense, but it's like, if go to a
| plastic surgeon... they are probably going to find plastic
| surgery to perform. Not that it's _wrong_, just that it's
| really not necessary when you balance in the cost.
| miles wrote:
| > Crooked dentists? ... What are you on about?
|
| Like any profession, dentistry has it share of charlatans:
|
| The Truth About Dentistry
| https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/the-
| tro...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-05-29 23:00 UTC)