Live data from Hacker News

Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

dental.washington.edu

291–300 of 364 posts

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#291
I've been drinking diet coke all day (about 3 liters/day) for many years, which causes my teeth to be less than white and also rather sensitive. Besides the coloring, I suspect that the enamel is being thinned down by the citric/phosphoric acid. I have no chronic pain, but the cosmetic aspect and the sensitivity bothers me. TFA sounds like that treatment could help.

Any other recommendations for my situation? I can't brush agressively due to receding gums. I use a chlorhexidine solution regularly, which helps preventing inflammation/aphthae in the mouth, which I used to have quite often prior to discovering CHX. And no, dialing down the diet coke is unfortunately not possible for me. ;)

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#292
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel your pain, literally. No local anesthetic works at all for me. I need to be put under general anesthesia. Costs an extra $6000 or $7000.

>Costs an extra $6000 or $7000. I'd find that more painful than the treatment.

Worth it to me. Dental pain is incredibly rough for me. Not sure why. And I have lots of experience with high levels of pain.

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#293

I've been drinking diet coke all day (about 3 liters/day) for many years, which causes my teeth to be less than white and also rather sensitive. Besides the coloring, I suspect that the enamel is being thinned down by the citric/phosphoric acid. I have no chronic pain, but the cosmetic aspect and the sensitivity bothers me. TFA sounds like that treatment could help. Any other recommendations for my situation? I can't…

Why is reducing the diet coke not possible for you? I don't mean to ask this as a snide remark, I'm just curious.

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#294

I've been drinking diet coke all day (about 3 liters/day) for many years, which causes my teeth to be less than white and also rather sensitive. Besides the coloring, I suspect that the enamel is being thinned down by the citric/phosphoric acid. I have no chronic pain, but the cosmetic aspect and the sensitivity bothers me. TFA sounds like that treatment could help. Any other recommendations for my situation? I can't…

"I've never seen a thin person drinking diet coke"

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#295
post #293

I've been drinking diet coke all day (about 3 liters/day) for many years, which causes my teeth to be less than white and also rather sensitive. Besides the coloring, I suspect that the enamel is being thinned down by the citric/phosphoric acid. I have no chronic pain, but the cosmetic aspect and the sensitivity bothers me. TFA sounds like that treatment could help. Any other recommendations for my situation? I can't…

Why is reducing the diet coke not possible for you? I don't mean to ask this as a snide remark, I'm just curious.

It's a strong addiction. I'm a device for turning diet code into working software ;) [1]. I need the caffeine kick. I don't particularly like to drink tea or coffee (which wouldn't help with the teeth coloring anyway). And I like the taste of diet coke (or coke zero) a lot. I tried switching to water multiple times, but was unable to sustain it. I wish Coca-Cola would produce a colorless variant (like Pepsi once did), which would at least improve the whiteness.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfr%C3%A9d_R%C3%A9nyi#Quotati...

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#296

I've been drinking diet coke all day (about 3 liters/day) for many years, which causes my teeth to be less than white and also rather sensitive. Besides the coloring, I suspect that the enamel is being thinned down by the citric/phosphoric acid. I have no chronic pain, but the cosmetic aspect and the sensitivity bothers me. TFA sounds like that treatment could help. Any other recommendations for my situation? I can't…

What about switching to seltzer you can mix with caffeine powder? If you look you should be able to find a “cola” flavored one which while not the same should at least be an approximation. From some quick googling it appears seltzer still has carbonic acid which ain’t great for your teeth but it’s not as bad as regular soda’s acid-combo [1].

[1] https://espiredental.com/is-seltzer-really-bad-for-your-teet...

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was very surprised when I went to a dentist in Europe to fill a cavity: they don’t freeze anything by default unless you really want. I thought I’d try without anesthesia and it turned out surprisingly bearable. Plus I didn’t have half my face frozen for half a day.

As a european who got dental care in two countries: I never heard of freezing at the dentist! What do they freeze exactly? How does it relate to anestesia? Medical care seems to have a lot of weird country-specific traditions, e.g. in Hungary it's apparently common to fill small kids' healthy teeth if the groves are too deep so they're simpler to clean and they don't get cavities. I had never heard of such a thing be…

Freezing is a local anaesthetic. It is a needle injection. Think lidocaine, that kind of thing. Better to go to an oral surgeon for more complicated work.

Filling in grooves needs to go away. It will change the bite/shift the jaw which theoretically can lead to other problems. Not to mention, the grooves are there to help provide a grinding surface for vegetable matter, etc. If you make your teeth perfectly flat, they won't be as effective. Making your teeth flatter is actually reducing/damaging the effectiveness of your teeth. If it was a good idea herbivores would have teeth as flat as a tabletop.

Where I live, as a kid my dentist filed the tips of my canines down a little. Why? Who knows, they weren't bothering me before. It was something that was decided upon without consulting me.

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#298

Highly out of context, but, another Turkish researcher outside Turkey, probably escaping Islamist government that's effing up Turkey, and coming up with ground breaking innovations. A a Turk, don't know if I should be thankful or mad as hell.

You can be both. You can be thankful that opportunities exist for them to practice their craft and bring things into the world to make it better. You can also be mad that they couldn't do it at home because of the regime which really does do ridiculous things like set monetary interest rates ignoring that it's still connected to the international financial system.

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#299
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My MD offers lab tests for Chlamydia, Bartonella, different strains of Borellia, Yersinia, Ehrlichia amongst others, she also offers tests for HPV and Mono. To be honest: I have no clue what is causing which exact symptom, it's also often the immune response / inflammation that's the reason for the pain and other problems. Edit: forgot to answer your question. yes, in my case it was episodes of joint pain, neck stiff…

Thanks. What kind of specialist is suggested for such a bacterial infection? Immunologist?

My general practitioner who is also an internist was overwhelmed ("deal with it, you're getting older" diagnosed only psychosomatic reasons etc). A friend of mine suggested an MD who specializes in such infections, I later changed to a Doc nearer to where I live. Got the address from Deutsche Borreliose Gesellschaft, a german registry for lyme.

Re: Trials begin on lozenge that rebuilds tooth enamel

#300

There really needs to be something like this. When we look back on dentistry in 50-100 years we will be amazed how barbaric it was! Ouch!

"When we look back on dentistry in 50-100 years we will be amazed how barbaric it was!"

Nothing will eclipse the barbarism and "effectiveness" of spinal disc treatments such as spinal fusions.

Post reply on HN