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Researchers create gel that regrows tooth enamel (2015)

dentistryiq.com

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Re: Researchers create gel that regrows tooth enamel (2015)

#31

Post by mad_dev »

rpedela wrote: post #25
lj3 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can regrow tooth enamel on your own right now. It's much, much slower than this and requires a criminally large amount of cod liver oil and butter oil (ie: vitamins A, D, K2 and calcium).

That claim needs a citation from a trustworthy source.

Vitamin D - https://mega.nz/#!VZBlUTgZ!uEBJgDYUZSocuHBBHLAFvZ8zBNnz4EY3R...

Sucrose https://mega.nz/#!QYBk3KiJ!_72HCKWQwvFnosXpCxmH1fi80wXyLJhht...

Sugar https://mega.nz/#!kVx0gY6R!nlMy1VqAKGHiEembU1nbTFxCNICgHZEB2...

Carbohydrates

https://mega.nz/#!0M5F1JAQ!NCeWcjurUqhf5lw-ZIeCjBR-9hknt_Ehy...

Fluoride

https://mega.nz/#!JBJEkDTI!lhLPyHnNuLylN6SLETs6rjxBxk4Ho_pPz...

Diet

https://mega.nz/#!tc5RwKLK!gnQ1aN29YK5PLmiVV0mKqGJXshfCEjZgm...

Re: Researchers create gel that regrows tooth enamel (2015)

#32

Post by lvs »

stephanheijl wrote: post #13

Is it just me, or does it feel like we've been hearing about advances in dental treatment for decades, without them actually having any effect on the practice? From my personal experience as someone living in the Netherlands, where standards of health care are pretty high, I would expect these advancements to make at least _some_ impact on the field. Instead my (admittedly anecdotal) experience as a patient has been…

These articles sadly derive from institutional press releases that invariably oversell the underlying work.

We have an unsustainable systemic problem arising from the need to convince governments filled with anti-science politicians to fund expensive science. The institutions therefore feel the need to oversell every tiny paper so voters and politicians believe we're getting somewhere fast and won't kill funding, but the pace of real science is always fits and starts. You see a lot of people who have somehow figured out how to search the literature and cherry pick a paper they don't like as evidence of wasteful spending, and the system believes (falsely in my view) that overselling and oversimplifying results in a language that voters and politicians can understand.

Edit: I should have also said that the other big motivating factor for institutional press offices is to market the institution to other potential donors.

Re: Researchers create gel that regrows tooth enamel (2015)

#33

Post by wikibob »

cultureulterior wrote: post #16
stephanheijl wrote: post #13

Is it just me, or does it feel like we've been hearing about advances in dental treatment for decades, without them actually having any effect on the practice? From my personal experience as someone living in the Netherlands, where standards of health care are pretty high, I would expect these advancements to make at least _some_ impact on the field. Instead my (admittedly anecdotal) experience as a patient has been…

You can get dental lasers in London at least

Could you recommend a particular dentist there? Do they have the Solea 9.3 µm laser? From what I've been able to find, it's the only one that directly removes enamel and dentin. The other kind is erbium lasers which vaporize a water jet which then removes the material, but it's vastly less precise.

Re: Researchers create gel that regrows tooth enamel (2015)

#34

Post by lvs »

leephillips wrote: post #28
crusso wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The announcements of new treatments and new discoveries in various healthcare fields astronomically outstrips the real ones that you can actually make use of. The easy money is in the hyping of potential cures, and it's easy to see why. Even in this HN thread where you'd expect the level of scientific understanding and healthy skepticism to be fairly high, you see a lot of "Wow, it's about time" type responses. Now i…

Generally speaking, politicians don't control grant money for research. They set the budgets for agencies who solicit proposals that are reviewed by domain experts. The exception is what is known as "pork", but that usually involves large projects.

That's pretty much untrue. In the US at least, the federal budget allocation passed by Congress specifies how funding is distributed across programs and to fund the implementation of initiatives specified in other acts. They not only set the budgets for agencies, but also they set the funding for specific programs in those agencies. For science funding agencies, those programs are partially grant soliciting programs, as well as other things. It's not just a big slush fund. Politicians regularly try to mess with these allocations to, for example, attempt to reduce funding for science programs they don't believe in. A famous example is with regard to embryonic stem cell research, although this was done by executive action.

Re: Researchers create gel that regrows tooth enamel (2015)

#36

Post by leephillips »

lvs wrote: post #34
leephillips wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally speaking, politicians don't control grant money for research. They set the budgets for agencies who solicit proposals that are reviewed by domain experts. The exception is what is known as "pork", but that usually involves large projects.

That's pretty much untrue. In the US at least, the federal budget allocation passed by Congress specifies how funding is distributed across programs and to fund the implementation of initiatives specified in other acts. They not only set the budgets for agencies, but also they set the funding for specific programs in those agencies. For science funding agencies, those programs are partially grant soliciting programs,…

All you say is true; I was trying to give a coarser-grained description. It applies to cases like this. Someone with a new idea for regrowing tooth enamel is going to apply to some program within NIH (I guess). He's not likely to get funded because a congressperson read a pop-sci article - his proposal will be reviewed by other researchers in dental health.

Re: Researchers create gel that regrows tooth enamel (2015)

#38

Post by stevebmark »

Maybe relevant to someone: Fluoroquinolone antibiotics like Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Levaquin (levofloxacin), *floxacin, etc, directly and maybe permanently increase the production of MMPs, the enzymes this article is talking about. That's (partly) why these antibiotics cause teeth to shatter at the gum line spontaneously.

There are something like 40 MMPs and we don't know what they all do, but they're generally responsible for destroying tissue in the body. Normally this is a good thing, like when a wound needs to clear out cells for wound healing. But fluoroquinolone antibiotics cause the "upregulation" of these enzymes, possibly permanently through epigenetic changes, so the body literally eats itself over time. This is why teeth shatter, hair falls out, collagen disappears (wrinkles, skin damage), connective tissue dissolves (like the optic nerve, leading to retinal detachment / blindness), and tendons literally snap without use, which can lead to disability. All of this damage can be irreversible even at low doses of fluoroquinolones.

Re: Researchers create gel that regrows tooth enamel (2015)

#39

Post by rjurney »

stevebmark wrote: post #38

Maybe relevant to someone: Fluoroquinolone antibiotics like Cipro (ciprofloxacin), Levaquin (levofloxacin), *floxacin, etc, directly and maybe permanently increase the production of MMPs, the enzymes this article is talking about. That's (partly) why these antibiotics cause teeth to shatter at the gum line spontaneously. There are something like 40 MMPs and we don't know what they all do, but they're generally respon…

Got a source? I want to read it.

Re: Researchers create gel that regrows tooth enamel (2015)

#40

Post by rjurney »

lj3 wrote: post #9
neeleshs wrote: post #3

Nice, I hope this hits mainstream in the next 10 years - I'm hoping my teeth will survive without a lot of damage till then :). The researchers also have filed for a patent https://www.google.com/patents/US20140186273

You can regrow tooth enamel on your own right now. It's much, much slower than this and requires a criminally large amount of cod liver oil and butter oil (ie: vitamins A, D, K2 and calcium).

Source plz? Want to read.
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