Live data from Hacker News

Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

seas.harvard.edu

31–40 of 86 posts

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#31
post #5

I hope this process becomes part of mainstream dental medicine. Our current dental technology feels backward compared to other fields of medicine

The ideal dental treatment would be a dental vaccine(against the mouth bacteria that destroys teeth and harms gums), letting future people not even being aware to dental issues(or maybe just use a monthly/weekly mouthwash). . there was even a startup aiming for that but it stopped due to fda and problems creating a trial.

Hopefully someone like Google finishes that up.

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#32
post #5

I hope this process becomes part of mainstream dental medicine. Our current dental technology feels backward compared to other fields of medicine

Eh?

Dentistry is one of the few fields of medicine that seems to know exactly how to fix whatever is ailing you and can do so at a cost that can be reasonably borne out-of-pocket without the clowncar of the insurance industry showing up.

I'd say that it's a huge success!

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Knee replacement isn't much prettier. Here are some links to time stamped surgical highlights sawing bone [5:55 mark] - https://youtu.be/bGOspdD25Dw?t=355 hammering [11:10 mark] - https://youtu.be/bGOspdD25Dw?t=671 Swinging a hammer like a baseball bat to remove a pin [entire video] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnBvpSU1Fcc Dentistry is gruesome but so is surgery, in general.

Made a quick youtube search for latest surgery tech, all I saw was a sewing burning scissors. Cute tech but still barbaric to me. Artery is even more gruesome, plumber. I wish to see organ generation take off somehow.

If you're looking for some interesting surgery tech, check out this fairly simple concept for handling battlefield trauma situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBauDwhGlzg

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#34
post #31
post #5

I hope this process becomes part of mainstream dental medicine. Our current dental technology feels backward compared to other fields of medicine

The ideal dental treatment would be a dental vaccine(against the mouth bacteria that destroys teeth and harms gums), letting future people not even being aware to dental issues(or maybe just use a monthly/weekly mouthwash). . there was even a startup aiming for that but it stopped due to fda and problems creating a trial. Hopefully someone like Google finishes that up.

What was the name of the company?

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#35
post #5

I hope this process becomes part of mainstream dental medicine. Our current dental technology feels backward compared to other fields of medicine

Eh? Dentistry is one of the few fields of medicine that seems to know exactly how to fix whatever is ailing you and can do so at a cost that can be reasonably borne out-of-pocket without the clowncar of the insurance industry showing up. I'd say that it's a huge success!

I don't remember where, but I saw dentistry compared to carpentry and the metaphor really stuck.

Take out the old thing, glue in a new thing, spackle, etc.

Hell, dentists even occasionally use brute force to get things to line up better (<-that's an inapt description of braces).

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#36
post #5

I hope this process becomes part of mainstream dental medicine. Our current dental technology feels backward compared to other fields of medicine

Eh? Dentistry is one of the few fields of medicine that seems to know exactly how to fix whatever is ailing you and can do so at a cost that can be reasonably borne out-of-pocket without the clowncar of the insurance industry showing up. I'd say that it's a huge success!

Thats only true if you have simple issues, I've had a molar silently split into 4 pieces (likely) because of a non-perfect filling (one of the only two I have/had). Apart from the non-fix of removing the tooth, there was a tremendous amount of 'umm's and 'maybe's from a competent dentist, and the attempt at root filling and gluing the tooth together ultimately failed.

So now I'm stuck with a molar less, or filing down perfectly healthy teeth to make a bridge, or an implant which might not work because the bone was affected by the previous broken tooth - and molar implants can be problematic in any case - or so I've been told.

Dentistry might not be a dark art anymore, but we appear to be much better at fixing broken bones than broken teeth.

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#37
post #16

First the article says: "drill holes in their molars, treat the tooth pulp that contains adult dental stem cells with low-dose laser treatments, applied temporary caps" Then it says: "Dave and his team have added an innovative, noninvasive and remarkably simple but powerful tool" Yeah, okay, if you read Wiktionary it defines "noninvasive" as "not requiring an incision". So by that strict definition it's true. Drillin…

Seems you skimmed the article. The first part you quoted was explaining the prior art done by the lead author -- giving rodents (not humans ) damaged tooth. The innovative procedure on humans will use lasers to trigger restoration of the damaged teeth.

Seems you skimmed the article.

I did not skim the article. Show me where it clearly says that they have an "innovative procedure" that noninvasively triggers human dentin stem cells.

They alluded to other noninvasive uses, but this wasn't one of them.

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Made a quick youtube search for latest surgery tech, all I saw was a sewing burning scissors. Cute tech but still barbaric to me. Artery is even more gruesome, plumber. I wish to see organ generation take off somehow.

If you're looking for some interesting surgery tech, check out this fairly simple concept for handling battlefield trauma situations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBauDwhGlzg

End part is tough to watch. It's cute tech, and for that context very useful. In civil surgery I want the organic equivalent of this.

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gerard Judd is the chemist who recommends brushing with bar soap [1]. It's cheap, readily available, and works better than anything else. And when combined with a second round of brushing with baking soda, my teeth stay squeaky-clean for longer than any toothpaste I've ever used. [1] http://www.fixyourteeth.org/ Just yesterday my brother & his wife were commenting on how good my 8-year old dog's teeth are. They've ne…

You really should not feed chicken bones to a day. The fragments can be very sharp and cause medical problems. http://www.vetblog.net/2013/07/dog.swallowed.chicken.bone.pr... http://keepthetailwagging.com/dont-panic-when-a-dog-eats-a-c...

This is a misconception largely born from thanksgiving and christmas time warnings. The issue is cooked bones from anything, not just poultry. Cooked cattle or pig or goat or sheep or lizard or whatever all post the exact same hazard. In much searching, I was not able to find any credible evidence that raw bones pose a threat.

Re: Researchers use light to coax stem cells to repair teeth (2014)

#40

Years ago I switched to brushing with baking soda and salt, and my teeth have basically stopped degenerating. Bar soap is good too, for removing acid-producing bacteria, but I don't like the aftertaste of some soaps.

Are you telling me you don't enjoy the taste of Irish Spring??
Post reply on HN