Serious question: is there any evidence that seemingly disruptive dental treatments like this are being suppressed by the dental industry?
Don't mess with Big Toothpaste!
'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
141–150 of 223 posts
Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
#142Surprised no-one has chipped in here to say the same, but the top comment on Reddit calls bullshit: https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/5n14a9/a_way_to_na...
Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember reading an article about these scientists experimenting with blue light and the larger capacity to store data. ~15 years later blu-ray came out. All hope is not lost.
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…
And when we're discussing medical care, the mandatory regulatory approvals are a significant cause of delay and cost. E.g. FDA approvals in the U.S.
They are a barrier to entry, and they are a measure to ensure safety of new cures. It's a tough balance.
Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
#144https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorhexidine toothpath/mouthwash prevents many tooth/gum diseases
Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
At least while awake, you may be fleeting but you exist in a near constant stream of "you", which make it feel constant. When you go to sleep your brain enters an altered state, which is only a subsection of yourself.
Who knows what will wake up from that?
Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember reading an article about these scientists experimenting with blue light and the larger capacity to store data. ~15 years later blu-ray came out. All hope is not lost.
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…
You are right, it takes time to invent and discover, and then time to roll down to consumers... But I think the second interval has been shrinking. It used to take much, much, longer between the time something is actually invented, and its use by the public (I think 80 years or something for some technologies). It doesn't take that long anymore for its use, not only in its home country, but globally. I live in Africa and touched an iPhone for the first time in 2007, the same year it came out. Why? Because I have a friend who used to watch Jobs keynotes (like wait for them)..and suddenly, the whole world knew about a product. Trade circuits have improved. Doing business with people you never met. All these shrink the time between the time Jobs wrapping up the show, and the moment it is available everywhere.
The first interval seems frozen, but I think this is Parkinson's law at work. Today's scientists and engineers have the best technology in History, and they're pursuing the boldest endeavors by that very fact.
Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
#147I feel like I see this headline every 2 years and nothing seems to change.
Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are not pessimistic. It's another one of those thing that have been only a few years away from commercialization for 20 years now. This is happening so often, there must be a name or a law for that.
Reminds me of a successful experiment where they caused mice to develop an immunity to plaque bacteria. I read about that in a dental training manual I found in a thrift shop about 20 years ago. Had photos of healthy rat teeth and everything.
According to a researcher on a recent Radiolab episode[1], 99.6% of results on mice don't replicate to humans. I assume for rats a similar figure applies.
[1] http://www.radiolab.org/story/bringing-gamma-back (about treating Alzheimer’s disease with light)
Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
#149I feel like I've seen how fillings would be replaced with drugs for about 25 years now -- I might not have any natural teeth left by the time it finally arrives! :-)
Don't worry, by that time we'll be growing teeth out of stem cells or something.
Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings
#150Earlier 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.
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 thought you said you could just read his brain electronically,” protested Ford.
“Oh yes,” said Frankie, “but we’d have to get it out first. It’s got to be prepared.” “Treated,” said Benjy. “Diced.”
“It could always be replaced,” said Benjy reasonably, “if you think it’s important.”
“Yes, an electronic brain,” said Frankie, “a simple one would suffice.”
“A simple one!” wailed Arthur.
“Yeah,” said Zaphod with a sudden evil grin, “you’d just have to program it to say What? and I don’t understand and Where’s the tea? Who’d know the difference?”
“I’d notice the difference,” said Arthur.
“No, you wouldn’t,” said Frankie mouse, “you’d be programmed not to.”
- Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not actually about teleportation, but still apropos IMHO.