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'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

bbc.com

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Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#131

Post by timje1 »

RhodesianHunter wrote: post #91
eganist wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We could discover teleportation tomorrow morning and it would be twenty years before teleporters were common-place. Everything takes time to be fully realized. I can appreciate this example, though in the specific context of teleportation, there'll probably be a few decades tacked on to resolve the ethical dilemmas arising from the question of whether or not the person arriving out of the other end is in fact the s…

You say that now, but when you step up to the machine with the knowledge that you are about to cease to exist, while somewhere else a perfect copy of you gets to go about living your life, I bet you change your mind.

It gets more fun when you start to think about it as different consciousness being created and destroyed, each with the same memories.

At what point do we start being afraid to fall asleep?

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#132

Post by manuelflara »

neverminder wrote: post #103
RhodesianHunter wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that now, but when you step up to the machine with the knowledge that you are about to cease to exist, while somewhere else a perfect copy of you gets to go about living your life, I bet you change your mind.

Exactly. What if there's a bug and when your "copy" is created at destination original is not destroyed? Would you agree to be killed, should your copy agree instead? Even worse, what if there's an anomaly in transporting data, original is destroyed and copy emerges disfigured, dead or something in between? Teleportation scares the shit out of me.

This reminds me of Christopher Nolan's The Prestige.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#133

Post by grzm »

throwaway00061 wrote: post #129
grzm wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question. Why are you posting health-related advice from a throwaway account? If it's something you are recommending to others, posting from an established account would have much more weight.

I always use throwaway accounts and don't see why account karma should confer additional weight on anything I say. Here's an article that reviews the literature on diluted bleach rinsing: http://www.rdhmag.com/articles/print/volume-35/issue-6/colum...

It doesn't have anything to do with karma. From a throwaway account, I have no basis to know who you are based on your other participation. HN is a community. Pseudonymity is fine, but anonymity is counter to the idea of community. I encourage you to establish yourself and be part of it.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#134

Post by fractallyte »

ricardobeat wrote: post #43
saurik wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really enjoyed this thread from a recent (two weeks ago) post about another advance in the treatment of cavities (a year before) that touched on this feeling. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13274183

That discussion got me on a search spree. Apparently others have picked up on the root-analogue implant idea and it is now available in the Netherlands, maybe soon in the USA: http://www.replicatetooth.com/for-patients This one is still made of titanium though, the Zirconia ones by BioImplant seem to make more sense. Anyway, not a cure but at least you don't need someone drilling into your head when cavities win a ma…

There are some major issues with the Replicate system: a paucity of actual cases (I also can't see any long term follow-ups); and the fact that the actual implant is a dark grey - this unpleasant discoloration will show through gums.

BioImplant has a long history, with comprehensive case histories and follow-ups readily viewable on the website. This is very important for medical credibility. (I worked with the creator of BioImplant.)

On the other hand, Replicate Tooth has a very nice website!

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#135

Post by ZeroGravitas »

greggman wrote: post #111
Cerium wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it depends on implementation. I wake up every morning and I'm pretty sure I'm still me. I go in elevators and each time the doors open I'm still me. So, what sort of transportation experience would change that? Admittedly, the closes to teleportation I've ever felt was my first trip on a cruise ship. I went to sleep in one city, and when I opened my eyes I was suddenly in a city hundred miles away. It was mag…

Here's a great old animation on this topic https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pdxucpPq6Lc

Better quality (but with Flash requirement):

https://www.nfb.ca/film/to_be/

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#136

Post by elros »

brandon272 wrote: post #52
nsxwolf wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dental implants are a pretty big breakthrough over the last couple of decades. Wether replacing individual teeth, or permanently anchoring dental bridges in place, it's gotten pretty darn close to the experience of having real teeth.

Dental implants are really cool, but they are also incredibly expensive.

Well in most civilized places, including where I live, ordinary people don't have to deal with dental costs on a one-off basis.

You just pay your taxes (or the state pays them if you can't afford it) and you're provided with healthcare.

Seems pretty reasonable if you ask me.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#137

Post by rebuilder »

MrQuincle wrote: post #114
Cerium wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it depends on implementation. I wake up every morning and I'm pretty sure I'm still me. I go in elevators and each time the doors open I'm still me. So, what sort of transportation experience would change that? Admittedly, the closes to teleportation I've ever felt was my first trip on a cruise ship. I went to sleep in one city, and when I opened my eyes I was suddenly in a city hundred miles away. It was mag…

I can think of an experience. The kind of teleportation in which you (or your copy) is teleported too close in time and space and the original is not destroyed. Then your copy claiming your job, your house, your wife and your children. Just as you would do. Also if the transport process takes 20 lightyears, when do you send the ACQ? Will your original walk around for 20 years and then have an automated kill switch?

Why is it better if the original is destroyed? That's the whole issue here, the process in your example, when working as intended, just kills a person and makes an identical copy.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#138

Post by rebuilder »

kbutler wrote: post #97
RhodesianHunter wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that now, but when you step up to the machine with the knowledge that you are about to cease to exist, while somewhere else a perfect copy of you gets to go about living your life, I bet you change your mind.

Think about that as you're taking also tonight. Is the person that wakes up the same person?

Why draw the line at sleep? Your consciousness, such as it is, is pretty fleeting and vague anyway. What reason do you have to think any self survives from one moment to another?

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#139

Post by kalleboo »

Johnythree wrote: post #112
kalleboo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of Europe and Japan doesn't fluoridate their water and they don't have notably worse dental outcomes. It really has to do with toothbrushing and diet. Water fluoridation is just a way to get to the people who refuse to brush their teeth.

You are completely missing the point. Many areas already have sufficient fluoride. It depends on the natural amount of fluorine in the water, if there's sufficient, then it's fine. It's only in the relatively few areas where there is a deficiency that it's a problem. And of course it also depends on diet. Offsetting your claim are studies which show that where people exclusively drink rain water, there is a higher in…

The countries that don't fluoridate their water don't have minimum levels of fluoride required. Whereas they have maximum levels of fluoride contamination allowed.

I'm not one of those "fluoridation is a government plot to make everyone pliable" crazies. Just saying that it's far, far more important to BRUSH YOUR TEETH than to have a fluoridated water supply. Just seems to me like water fluoridation is just one of those crazy things Americans and places America has influenced do (such as using the customary measure system and circumcising their male children - sure if you dig deep enough you can justify it, but plenty of people get along just fine without it)

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#140

Post by babuskov »

eganist wrote: post #84
astrodust wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes a lot of time to turn a laboratory discovery into a reliably working prototype, then longer still for the industry to agree on standards and branding, and even longer to ramp up mass-manufacturing and get the distribution chain working. We could discover teleportation tomorrow morning and it would be twenty years before teleporters were common-place. Everything takes time to be fully realized. If you want to…

> We could discover teleportation tomorrow morning and it would be twenty years before teleporters were common-place. Everything takes time to be fully realized. I can appreciate this example, though in the specific context of teleportation, there'll probably be a few decades tacked on to resolve the ethical dilemmas arising from the question of whether or not the person arriving out of the other end is in fact the s…

> it doesn't matter

There's a pun in there.

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