Perhaps soon dental cavities can be treated without traditional fillings. Thanks to an innovative method developed by American scientists, tooth enamel can grow back automatically after applying an appropriate preparation. This could be a breakthrough in dental prosthetics.
- American dental specialists have developed a method of remineralization of tooth enamel
- The method still needs to be refined and tested on patients. For now, it has been tested in laboratory conditions
- Scientists expect that the preparation they developed may be a component of, for example, prophylactic toothpastes in the future.
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Scientists have developed a product whose composition is based on peptides – short chains of amino acids connected by peptide bonds. They are not long enough to be considered full of protein. This preparation, when applied in laboratory conditions to artificially created cavities in teeth, caused remineralisation of the enamel. and effective healing of the cavity.
The development of this method of treating teeth was officially announced by the Americans from the University of Washington in 2018 in the scientific magazine “ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering”.
An alternative to drilling and fillings
Enamel remineralization through the use of peptides is a healthy alternative to current dental treatments. Enamel is exposed to destruction and demineralization throughout our lives. Among other things, as a result of eating sugar-containing products.
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“Bacteria metabolize sugar and other fermenting carbohydrates in the oral environment, and acid as a by-product demineralises enamel,” says dentist Sami Dogan, quoted by Sciencealert.com.
Only to a small extent our teeth can be remineralized with saliva, fluoride toothpaste and additives to drinking water. But prevention is not everything. When there is a visible cavity, it must be treated by a dentist – which usually means drilling and filling the hole with a dental seal.
A way for small cavities
To introduce this innovative product into dental treatment, scientists will need to do much more testing. First of all, to see how the peptide solution will work in real patients and whether the results will be as good as in the laboratory. Traditional filling will most likely still be needed for deep cavities that extend to the dentin layers below the enamel.
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However, scientists believe their product can be used as part of the daily prophylactic tooth care, in the form of toothpaste or gel, to minimize costly dental visits for shallower cavities.
It is worth remembering that the best prevention of dental diseases is their regular washing. For this purpose, it is worth getting a good quality sonic brush and trying a toothpaste without fluoride.
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