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'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

bbc.com

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Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#81

Post by olejorgenb »

popinman322 wrote: post #61
mrob wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As someone who grew up on well water with no fluoride in it I can confirm that my teeth are looking fine after all these years of regular dental checkups and twice daily tooth-brushing.

Fluoride occurs naturally (in varying concentrations) in water. Water with high natural concentrations is how we found out fluoride prevents tooth decay in the first place.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#82

Post by Sophistifunk »

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 distinctly remember seeing a story maybe 20 years ago about a university breeding a bacteria that out-competes the stuff in your mouth, but doesn't excrete the acid that wrecks your teeth. It was supposedly going into products that same year, but I never heard of it again.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#83

Post by sqldba »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #73
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 think this is cool research and I hope they can bring it to market but in the "its cool stage" it just makes it harder to convince your kids to brush :-) Parent: "Brush your teeth or you will end up with all this dental work like I have." Kid: "Nah, we'll have regrowable teeth by then." FWIW, I got an implant a couple of years ago and talked to my dentist about these sorts of things. On the plus side an implant is…

I thought implants only have a ten year lifespan?

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#84

Post by eganist »

astrodust wrote: post #48
advertising wrote: post #26

Earlier 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…

> We could discover teleportation tomorrow morning and it would be twenty years before teleporters were common-place. Everything takes time to be fully realized.

I can appreciate this example, though in the specific context of teleportation, there'll probably be a few decades tacked on to resolve the ethical dilemmas arising from the question of whether or not the person arriving out of the other end is in fact the same person.

(I'm of the position that it doesn't matter, but still... anyway, this entire thought was just a tangent off an example)

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#85

Post by torinmr »

stplsd wrote: post #80
kalleboo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of Europe and Japan doesn't fluoridate their water and they don't have notably worse dental outcomes. It really has to do with toothbrushing and diet. Water fluoridation is just a way to get to the people who refuse to brush their teeth.

I think genetics have a part too. My grandmother was deported to Siberia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_deportations_from_Lithu... ) for 20 years where they have 200 grams of bread a day at best and never brushed her teeth in her life and never had a tooth filling or missing tooth before her retirement, and I have half my teeth missing and I am only 30 years old. Fuck my life.

Could that also be related to diet? I'm guessing your grandmother practically never ate sugar if she was living on 200 grams of bread a day.

I've also heard that early modern humans had fairly good teeth for their age despite the presumed lack of dental care, presumably also due to differences in their diet from us.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#86

Post by torinmr »

stplsd wrote: post #80
kalleboo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of Europe and Japan doesn't fluoridate their water and they don't have notably worse dental outcomes. It really has to do with toothbrushing and diet. Water fluoridation is just a way to get to the people who refuse to brush their teeth.

I think genetics have a part too. My grandmother was deported to Siberia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_deportations_from_Lithu... ) for 20 years where they have 200 grams of bread a day at best and never brushed her teeth in her life and never had a tooth filling or missing tooth before her retirement, and I have half my teeth missing and I am only 30 years old. Fuck my life.

Could that also be related to diet? I'm guessing your grandmother practically never ate sugar if she was living on 200 grams of bread a day.

I've also heard that early modern humans had fairly good teeth for their age despite the presumed lack of dental care, presumably also due to differences in their diet from us.

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#87

Post by divanvisagie »

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™.

Pretty sure they covered time to market in the article

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#88

Post by FireBeyond »

nsxwolf wrote: post #37
maxxxxx wrote: post #16

Let's hope there will be some real progress in dentistry. I am probably doing the field injustice but there doesn't seem to have happened much progress in the last decades compared to other areas of medicine. When something is wrong the usual response is to remove it, no healing. I personally hope that one day we will be able to regrow teeth. With all my crowns it's too late to repair cavities.

Dental implants are a pretty big breakthrough over the last couple of decades. Wether replacing individual teeth, or permanently anchoring dental bridges in place, it's gotten pretty darn close to the experience of having real teeth.

And for the low low cost of between $3,000 and $6,000 per tooth, per decade!

Re: 'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings

#90

Post by jessaustin »

sqldba wrote: post #83
ChuckMcM wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is cool research and I hope they can bring it to market but in the "its cool stage" it just makes it harder to convince your kids to brush :-) Parent: "Brush your teeth or you will end up with all this dental work like I have." Kid: "Nah, we'll have regrowable teeth by then." FWIW, I got an implant a couple of years ago and talked to my dentist about these sorts of things. On the plus side an implant is…

I thought implants only have a ten year lifespan?

At least in USA, there is a vast range in implant placement technique among practicing dentists. Improperly placed, they'll fail in six months. Properly placed, and with no later issues such as abscesses, they should get stronger and stronger over time.
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