Boosting teeth’s healing ability by mobilizing stem cells in dental pulp

What?

Batteries have made enormous strides in the past two decades. Surely, you remember the days of almost everything running off AAs, which took hours to recharge (If they were even rechargable), and tended to leak their contents at the slightest provocation.

Or, alternatively, you could shell out large amounts of money for lithium-ion batteries, which wouldn't hold half a charge after ~50 cycles, and which would be at 1/6th their original capacity after ~100 cycles.

If anything, battery technology has been a monumental success story. No, we don't have batteries based on unicorn farts that charge in 20 seconds, and hold more energy then gasoline. But what we do have is pretty damn amazing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_implant

There was a CT scan of my mouth, and then a bolt was selected and a ceramic tooth created that would accurately fill the gap. It works just like a real tooth, except it is slightly chunkier (but it's chunkier in the direction that points inside my mouth, so I'm the only person who can tell).

It felt pretty high-tech to me, although the article mentions that the first titanium dental implant was placed in 1965.

Nowadays they just shine a near-UV light on them for a couple seconds and it's done.

If they are, someone should hold their hands and reassure them, or something. I haven't been to a dentist in about 6 years, mostly due to procrastination - though I can afford to have work done, I don't have coverage for it.

I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about going if I thought they could actually fix something, instead of announcing that they want to drill more holes in my teeth every time.

He breaks out so much new tech when I visit my friends and family think I'm crazy for going to him. I refer to him as my mad scientist.

Dentistry has these things too. I think some whitening products are an example. Turns out you don't actually need to be a dentist (from a technical / clinical knowledge perspective) to sell these products, so a lot of random retailers started selling them for a lot cheaper. Dentists got mad, and in these situations the ADA or regional dental associations can drive legislative change. Not saying this always happens, and it certainly isn't unique to dentistry, but these economic issues often dictate what tech gets marketed and what doesnt. If the tech offers a real and meaningful clinical improvement however (whitening does not count) then the tech gets to the market eventually

The issue I see with this approach is that 1) the risk / benefit is not super great, and not better than standard of care from what I can tell. Fillings work pretty well, and if there is any risk you can get cancer or other bad things happen from this regenerative med, it wouldn't be responsible to prescribe it. Further, marketing this would require expensive clinical studies, and you'd never be able to charge enough to recoup this cost. Unless there is a significant clinical benefit, no insurance company would pay for an expensive med vs a simple filling.

This is why most drug developers using cutting edge tech target areas of significant unmet need, like late stage cancer. If it works, you really provide a ton of value to patients (extending health span and life), so insurers will pay you for that value. If you are offering a "cooler" alternative to something that pretty much works, not so much

These paperclips have the potential to infect healthy gum tissue with nasty anaerobic bacteria from pockets that are already infected. Unless you use one clip per pocket, of course.

If you want good measurements of disease progression, it's much better to use e.g. a BANA test that estimates pathogenic bacteria counts. Or if you are really fancy, sample some gum pockets and get a bit of 16S sequencing done with a MinION.

I believe the medical glow makes it appear more sophisticated than it appear, justifying the high costs.

It takes a certain type of personality to become a dentist.

im sure that everyone can do their own thinking on that subject.

but I have had the gamut oof good to bad dentist experiences;

good: father in law (who was a dentist) was a great man

bad: dentist accused me of having braces (I have perfect teeth - never had braces) -- then charged my insurance for a bunch of procedures which werent performed (I only had a cleaning)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelatindera/2017/04/25/out-o...

When they were literally crumbling away later in life, the dentist told me to wait before replacing them, as new filling materials coming down the pike.

So I did, and got all the old fillings drilled out and replaced with epoxy ones that match color with my teeth, will last the rest of my life, and hold the weakened tooth together.

I wish I'd had that paint available these days when I was a kid, that is painted on the tooth and prevents decay.

* the evolution of dental curing lights from cumbersome, active refrigerated, and wired into really light, portable, wireless flashlights/pens

* the introduction of sodium bicarbonate jets for cleaning, polishing and whitening teeth

* the introduction of the ultrasonic scaler

* the change from dental amalgam (mercury-based), for fillings, to cast resin or ceramic

* the introduction of whitening treatments

* the changes from really bulky braces to relativevly slim ones, transparent and low-profile brackets, new techniques that do away with external head-gear for a lot of cases

https://www.amazon.com/Sensodyne-repair-protect-novamin-pack...

Edit reply to your edit: I am sorry about your teeth. It is amazing how dental education still isn't pervasive -- she gets teenage patients in Oakland who've never been told to brush their teeth and who will lose them all at a young age. Modern dentistry can work some wonders, so long term I hope you are doomed only to some discomfort and costs and not more severe problems.

I empathise with your having to deal with dental problems... Everyone experiences it at some point and no one enjoys it. But I think this is the right strategy for science, perhaps it wont help us directly, but it will help our ancestors.

Read the book, "Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye".

Despite the clickbaity title (well, the paper book equivalent), it talks about how your teeth naturally do regenerate in the proper conditions, and what those conditions should be [1]. I've been personally using the system for a few years, and the last couple times I went to the doctor, no cavities have been found and my teeth are healthy.

1. If you want to skip the why and get to the how, you can read this web page and other links on it for more detail: https://drellie.com/my-system/ The only thing I do differently is include flossing using floss sticks.

Uh, no. Your enamel can't be replaced. However, your dentin is regenerated constantly, in the same way that bone is regenerated. People with really good genetics can even over-generate dentin. Not only have I read about this, I know this firsthand, because I have developed "spurs" on the corners of some teeth where the enamel has gotten chipped. Dentin isn't as hard as enamel, but it's still pretty darn hard. Plenty hard enough to chew with.

This your problem, they absolutely aren't. Please take care of your teeth, people.

I am in a similar boat. I first learned about flossing in my 20s. My mouth is now full of crowns and fillings and it's just a matter of time to get implants or something else.

Unfortunately dentistry doesn't have any "good" approaches. All of them are just various degrees of "bad".

But you can slow down the decay a lot. The best thing I have ever done was to get an oral irrigator. It has helped my gums a lot so my teeth are pretty stable now.

We've updated the title above to a representative phrase from the article body.

The downside is that they weren't allowed to sell the genetically modified version, they had to derive it from natural bacteria and formulate it to be a daily supplement instead of a permanent replacement.

Xerostomia is a bitch, and will lead to what hire describing. Xylitol gum and something like Xylimelts can help. I speak from personal experience.

Only habit change: I dropped net carbohydrates to 20g per day. I did that for a chronic condition, but the change in dental health was a pleasant side effect. My dentist told me he's never seen such a dramatic difference. Gum-inflammation was causing gaps between my teeth, and that receded to where he couldn't detect it any longer. I went from a teeth cleaning once every other month to once every four months, and that is only by personal choice to get what little buildup he can find (the cleanings are nearly perfunctory, about 10 minutes now). Yet my dental routine has worsened, as I no longer brush and floss after every meal (going to one meal a day at the end of the day also gave me time to brush and floss after that).

YMMV. I suspect a large genetic component, and dropping carbohydrates will impact dental health for some even with a modest drop to 1-200g net carbs per day, and not at all for others even down to 20g net carbohydrates.

> Does drinking milk regularly maintain healthy teeth?

Calcium helps remineralize your teeth.