[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)