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'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

bbc.com

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Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#41

Post by sathackr »

poikniok wrote: post #32
hackits wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would of liked to been told `Nothing is going to come on the market` instead of `All this wonderful technology is going to solve any problems you're going to have`. The latter results in careless behavior, the former results more careful behavior. Personally as someone as a kid was going up out-back Australia who's parents and care giver didn't put fluoride tablets into the water because it caused the water to `tas…

Fluoride decreases IQ significantly, be thankful that at least you are intelligent, albeit with bad teeth.

Source?

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#42

Post by wishinghand »

poikniok wrote: post #32
hackits wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would of liked to been told `Nothing is going to come on the market` instead of `All this wonderful technology is going to solve any problems you're going to have`. The latter results in careless behavior, the former results more careful behavior. Personally as someone as a kid was going up out-back Australia who's parents and care giver didn't put fluoride tablets into the water because it caused the water to `tas…

Fluoride decreases IQ significantly, be thankful that at least you are intelligent, albeit with bad teeth.

Aw shucks, I'm merely intelligent, rather than a genius?

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#43

Post by ricardobeat »

saurik wrote: post #6
slimsag wrote: post #3

This is insanely cool, and I imagine there is no need for me to explain how useful this would be in comparison to the current dental approaches today. But is this technology ever going to be available to consumers? I remember reading about similar advancements almost three years ago and haven't heard anything related until now. Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I think we won't see this in practice for a Very Long Time™.

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 match.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#44

Post by user837387 »

hackits wrote: post #22
brandon272 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually find these articles depressing because it seems like nothing like this ever ultimately comes to fruition. I'm guessing these "breakthroughs" have always been just around the corner. I recall having a conversation with my dentist almost 20 years ago about things that were up and coming that were about to make our lives a lot easier in terms of saving and strengthening and building tooth enamel but none of w…

I would of liked to been told `Nothing is going to come on the market` instead of `All this wonderful technology is going to solve any problems you're going to have`. The latter results in careless behavior, the former results more careful behavior. Personally as someone as a kid was going up out-back Australia who's parents and care giver didn't put fluoride tablets into the water because it caused the water to `tas…

Didn't you use toothpaste with fluoride? Or is that not enough?

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#45

Post by cowsandmilk »

Does anyone have good resources on non-behavioral factors that affect health of teeth?

Growing up, I never brushed and did pretty much everything a dentist advises against. I never have had a cavity. With seemingly no consequences, it was extremely hard for me to find any motivation to change my behavior. I've often wondered whether there was something genetic, and today I wonder if maybe I won some microbiome lottery.

I finally started taking care of myself due to (a) gum disease, (b) breath, and (c) yellowing of teeth, but I'm nowhere near as fastidious as some people I know who regularly get cavities and have to get all sorts of work done.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#46

Post by mrob »

poikniok wrote: post #32
hackits wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would of liked to been told `Nothing is going to come on the market` instead of `All this wonderful technology is going to solve any problems you're going to have`. The latter results in careless behavior, the former results more careful behavior. Personally as someone as a kid was going up out-back Australia who's parents and care giver didn't put fluoride tablets into the water because it caused the water to `tas…

Fluoride decreases IQ significantly, be thankful that at least you are intelligent, albeit with bad teeth.

Regardless of whether fluoride is a serious risk or not, it seems ridiculous to take a topical drug systemically. Fluoride works by inorganic reactions with the teeth themselves. There's no benefit to flooding the whole body with it. It's reasonable to be suspicious of water fluoridation when the same benefit can be achieved with fluoridated toothpastes, which deliver the fluoride only where it's needed.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#47

Post by delecti »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #45

Does anyone have good resources on non-behavioral factors that affect health of teeth? Growing up, I never brushed and did pretty much everything a dentist advises against. I never have had a cavity. With seemingly no consequences, it was extremely hard for me to find any motivation to change my behavior. I've often wondered whether there was something genetic, and today I wonder if maybe I won some microbiome lotter…

Out of curiosity, do you happen to have tonsil stones and/or a strong propensity to develop tartar?

Because all of that applies to me, and I've also been told that my saliva has a higher than average mineral content. I can't help but wonder if they're all related.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#48

Post by astrodust »

advertising wrote: post #26
brandon272 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually find these articles depressing because it seems like nothing like this ever ultimately comes to fruition. I'm guessing these "breakthroughs" have always been just around the corner. I recall having a conversation with my dentist almost 20 years ago about things that were up and coming that were about to make our lives a lot easier in terms of saving and strengthening and building tooth enamel but none of w…

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 know what the near future holds look at what was discovered thirty years ago.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#49

Post by astrodust »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #40
scoot wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battery tech - it's the next big thing that never was.

Ahh, except solar Is so cheap now it's driving fossil fuels out of business and utilities are replacing natural gas peaker plants with battery storage. Y'all sleep through the last year?

That's the problem with exponential curves. At first nothing's happening, it's extremely boring, and slowly, ever so slowly, things start to pick up.

Then one day you blink and it's gone right past you.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#50

Post by astrodust »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #29
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calcium supplements are distinctly distasteful to me, and that makes it hard to make a habit of taking it. :) The tablets generally taste like chalk. (Extremely literally.) And even the adult gummy variety are far worse than their multivitamin counterparts. It's really hard to make chalk taste good.

I've gotten four downvotes so far for admitting I have poor health habits! I honestly can't think of anything more Californian than that. Thanks, Silicon Valley!

It's not for admitting it, it's for your apparent utter indifference to doing even the slightest thing to fix it.

Seriously, life-hack your way out of this.

"Yeah, I know smoking is bad," he said while taking a drag on a cigarette. "But what would I do with all that free time and extra years of life?"

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